Pro Human
by Xazz
Summary: After the fall of society as we know it to a species killing 'plague' the world and humanity has rebuilt itself to stay on top. The world is changed, but even after 500 years there is still corruption, and where this is corruption there are Assassins.
1. The High Season

Please see the bottom note for full disclosure.

* * *

Altair sat crouched on the parapet and looked out over the city. It was dark out, but beyond the city was alive. Overhead blimps broadcast the news and on the great Abstergo Tower a full display of the company logo, three trapezoids forming a triangle, and the words 'A Safer Tomorrow' under it. Altair frowned, pulling his hood tighter around his face as the wind blew away any feint fog that would have gathered around his face this winter night. He wasn't cold though, even though his jacket was a bit thin. Upgrades in his skin stopped his nerves from register temperatures at certain degrees. He'd feel it if it was getting to the point of frost bite or serious sun burns. But for this, nothing to worry over.

He looked down, and below was a floor of glass that reached the street sidewalk some sixty stories down. Altair grinned, just a little, to himself, and tugged on a pair of white gloves. The outsides looked like rubber, but the insides were plastic, breathable, but gripped his palms and back of his hands like a second skin. He double checked the harness around his waist before standing up and looking down. Time to take a leap of faith, like they always did when they used this equipment. A novice could hurt themselves, or worse get themselves killed, if they weren't sure of their equipment. Altair knew he would be safe, he had faith.

Slowly he tipped forward and fell forward into open air. Wind rushed past his face and threw back his hood as he flipped in mid fall. He faced the building now, arms outstretched, free falling on his stomach. Then the rope around his middle caught and he swung towards the building. Altair held his arms forward and they collided with the glass. His gloves were like shock absorbers, and the glass merely rattled, instead of breaking. Normal people would have broken both arms trying that stunt. Thank the God for reinforced skeletons.

He flipped so he was sitting mid air and took stock of what floor he was on as he tugged off his gloves, their use was over. He was at about floor forty three. He needed floor thirty six. Humming a little under his breath Altair tugged at a few straps on his harness and began to slide down the rope at a controlled pace. He reached floor thirty six and stopped, the harness jerking him to a halt.

From a pouch at his side Altair pulled out a small glass cutter. Had to love the basics and created a circle only a little bigger than his shoulders before popping the glass out. Shit. What was he supposed to do with this? He groaned, mid air, and looked down. He wasn't afraid of heights, and his Eagle Vision kicked in, zooming in on the distance street far below. The street was empty and was so for blocks. He could drop the glass. "Fuck," he muttered as he caught sight of the time. He had to get in and away from the window quickly, a guard was going to be coming by in less than a minute.

Altair just cut his losses and dropped the glass. Then, as if he was diving, he swung towards the hole in the glass, unhooking his harness as he did to and rolled soundlessly into the hallway. He jerked his hood up as he looked up and down the hallway, Eagle Vision automatically washing his sight out into muted green tinted grays of night vision, turning the darkness into twilight.

He stood up from his kneeling position slowly his ears catching the sound of an incoming guard. Altair ducked behind a desk and did his best not to breath loudly, or really at all, as the guard walked past, their footsteps loud on the carpet. He stared at the hole in the glass irritably. They should invent something to fix this, so they wouldn't leave holes in the glass. He hoped the guard wouldn't notice, but of course; he did. The guard gave a surprised cry and Altair felt his body twitch, urging him to run, his natural instinct to get as far the fuck away from the guard as possible. Training kept him still however as the guard radioed that they'd had a break in.

Lovely.

The guard however was stupid and left the hall to Altair, hurrying away as if Altair wasn't there. He gave a soft breath of thanks once the guard was gone and rose slowly from behind the desk and went down the hall in the other direction, jogging till he came to a flight of stairs. The floor above was only reachable from this level, as all the offices along the outside were blocked out with walls.

"Hello beautiful," he grinned as he reached the top of the stairs and out before him stretched rows upon rows of computer and server banks. Eagle Vision adjusted to the new darkness, the image becoming slightly grainy at the edges, washing out further. Humming he casually strolled down the stack of servers, all whirling softly, the room a balmy seventy degrees as the ventilation system sucked in air from the outside to cool the room.

The Templars thought they were stupid. Honestly it was the only reason they would do this. The server bank for Abstergo Tower was located damn near across town, in an unsuspecting office building. The commanders were going to have fucking kittens.

Altair found a terminal mounted into the wall and turned it on. After a second the screen it up and he narrowed his eyes before the night vision faded into more or less his normal vision. Once the terminal was operational he quickly clicked through several menus and found what he was looking for. He pulled out an empty data chip into one of the ports and copied a bunch of files. Then he copied other files from around the terminal, help draw off the trail. In went another data chip, as he pulled the other one our, and he uploaded all the files onto it into the system. The servers around him whirled, whined and then all the little lights, including the terminal shut off.

Chuckling he grabbed both data chips, tucked them away and left. Eagle Vision was cranked up on high as all the lights in the building had gone out. He stopped a moment and looked across the city. Abstergo Tower was shut down, except for their massive sign, which no longer bore the Abstergo sign, but now was a white background with a massive design of the Assassins in red, the Creed scrolled along the bottom in red text 'Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.' Time to get out. He walked casually to the stairwell on the floor and started down. Down, down, down he went and pushed open the emergency exit door. Usually an alarm would have sounded, but the entire building was dead.

"Thank you for that marvelous demonstration, Altair," a voice chimed through the air and the night dissolved around him, replaced by the sleek white room of the training simulator. It flittered through another chameleon of looks, the panels seeming to ripple, and it once more looked like a class room. While it might have been a simulator, but it was also a classroom, there were ten other rooms just like it in the lower levels of the fortress, for the ten novice classes.

"Of course," Altair said, and put his hands behind his back as he now stood before a class of thirteen year olds of both genders who were looking at him with awe, as well as one who looked like he was about to burst apart with excitement and pride. Altair gave him a slight smile, his son had every right to be proud Altair was his father.

Their teacher was standing behind the group of teenagers, "And of course the best part is that that was indeed a mission you performed."

Altair chuckled, "Yes, I do not remember it being quite as easy however," it was a gentle nudge and they both knew. In truth the Templars had had trained and armed guards stationed on the floor below the banks, and Altair had had to melt the hinges off the door to the floor above to even get in. He'd also killed, a lot. But they were Templars, he hadn't cared. At this age however the novices were still spared from blood, hell most of them had only begun puberty. The Order was not so cruel as to inflict such gore onto children.

The instructor chuckled. "Indeed, now I was wondering if you could-

The door opened and everyone turned to look, a woman stood in the doorway, "Excuse me for the interruption Jackson," they bowed their head at the instructor, "Master Altair, the Grand Master summons you," she said looking right at him.

"Is it urgent?" he asked carefully.

"He said that whatever you might be doing, short of physical harm if you did not do so, was to be done later. Come," she ordered.

"Tell him I'll be right along, I do not wish to be rude," he motioned to the teenagers in the class. She looked at them, back at him, nodded once, and then left. He looked at the instructor, "My apologies Jackson," he said sincerely.

"Think nothing of it brother," Jackson waved away his concern.

"I wouldn't be against you dragging me in here again, to the benefit of your students," his eyes flicked to Darim for only a moment.

Jackson chuckled slightly, "I don't doubt," he agreed. "Class," he said in an authoritative tone and they all stood up from their chairs.

"Safety and peace Master Altair," they said in unison and bowed to him.

"Safety and peace novices," he said with a slight wave and walked out the door. He walked down the slightly curved hallway to the end where he dropped off his harness, which was still around his waist. The instructor who tended the equipment just gave him a nod and he continued to the elevator banks.

—

The top of the fortress was lovely, with wide open windows that looked out upon the mountains and forest around them. The city was a purple array of towers to the east. Most of the fortress was underground, but the uppermost floors was above ground. He stopped at the station outside the Grand Master's desk, "The Grand Master called for me," he said, she looked him over quickly before nodding and telling him to go in.

The Grand Master was a man in his fifties, with slicked back, black hair and a large scar over his left eye leaving him blind. His family had held the seat of the Grand Master for over a century, something that didn't usually happen. Normally the seat of the Grand Master was not passed on along blood lines, but the Auditore family had an especially strong line of genes that made them cuts above the rest. Farther back in their genes Altair shared a great grandmother with them, but the genetic line had diverged after that and while they shared some traits, they were not similar. So in effect he was related to Grand Master Mario, but not _related _to him exactly.

There was another man in the room as well and Altair felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. His eyes narrowed at Malik who glared right back at him. There was a mutual dislike between the two, and not even Altair was sure why. They'd been in the same class together growing up and while usually novices of the same class were close, more like siblings than even those they were genetic siblings with, it had not been so with him and Malik. They were both extremely skilled, and very competitive and what had been a friendly rivalry in their youth had expanded into something resembling animosity. It was probably petty and childish, they were both in their thirties for the God's sake, but Malik could just get under his skin like no one else. Though to be fair Altair knew exactly which buttons to push to get Malik to react in any way he wanted, anger usually. Normally it would have shown compatibility but… he balked at the thought of any child of his sharing genes with the man. Thankfully the Order took notice of who wasn't just compatibly genetically, but also who may or may not like who, they weren't assholes about it.

"Ah, Altair," Mario said, cheerfully, a broad smile on his face.

"Master," he bowed his head and when Mario beckoned him to sit, he came around to the other chair in the room and sat next to Malik on the other side of the desk. Every sense was on alert with Malik so close, they were too similar, they clashed. Too many similar genes? That seemed stupid since Altair shared more DNA with the Mentor than the other Master Assassin. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting, my apologies," he said once he was seated.

Mario waved off his apology, "Not long enough for it to be a concern Altair. Shandra told me you were down in the fifth class giving a demonstration," Altair nodded. "I'm sure you both know the season is approaching," he said, they nodded separately.

The season was the time of year members of their Order could petition for children, or the higher ups of the Order decided that certain people would make better matches than others. Ever since the Collapse, when most of the higher standing western countries had fallen to their own civil wars and infighting that had erupted after the plague. It was called a plague, though it was no sickness that could be cured. It was said that before the Collapse you didn't have to go to a Child's Bank if you wanted to have a baby, women could just have them. In fact they had so many children that the population had swelled to the point of bursting. Then the 'plague' had come and fewer and fewer children started to be born till none were being born.

The world had torn itself apart when it became obvious there was nothing that could save them. No science or prayer could fix whatever had fucked up biology. It had taken till the world was growing old, and they realized they had to be something they could do, because there were no more young people, they were all old, or were dead. No God answered their prayer, but scientists had not been idle during the drought of youth and had been perfecting how to inseminate blank eggs with genes from two different parents. They came onto the scene, almost seventy years after the Collapse and showed off not just their technology, but also over a dozen children ranging from ages of five to fifteen. Not even those remaining members of the more devout sects of what remained of the religions could nay say them, because the fact stood that without this technology humanity would wipe itself off the face of the earth.

That was almost five hundred years ago now. The plague now a bad memory, but still few, or no, children were born of normal conception, and they continued to use science to populate. Child's Banks were the places normal people could go to have a child, in the Order it was different, and often two parents were simply paired together without remark to their own interactions. The Order bred and raised Assassins, the cream of the crop and all their members were flawless as far as genetics went, with as little junk DNA as possible. Altair had two children like this, with two different other donors. He was in good standings with the both of them, but it had never been topic of affection between them. The Mentor and his advisors had told him to do, and he had done it. It was not an uncommon story as one might think and the season was when the Order… bred (though using such a word to explain it comes across more rude to the entire experience than not) it's members and grew their numbers.

"Good," Mario continued, "Well, it's been decided, that you two will be participating this year," there was a silence and Altair felt all the hair on his body stand up on end. Next to him the arms of Malik's chair creaked as he gripped it. Usually being chosen was an honor, as only about twenty couples were chosen a year. But this didn't sound like an honor and Altair waited for the shoe to drop. The silence lasted only long enough for Altair's heart to beat a few times before Mario said, "together."

"WHAT!"

"You can't possibly expect-

"I refuse to share my genes with that-

"Mentor have you lost your mind?"

"Under what sort of good graces-

"Enough!" Mario bellowed, being the only one who'd remained sitting, as both he and Malik he jumped from their chairs and hand their hands on his desk. "Both of you, sit down," he ordered. Altair was shaking slightly but he pushed back from the desk. Over thirty years of training had beaten him into the shape of obedience and he sat, Malik did so as well, looking just as pleased about the situation as him. "Now, are you going to act like the grown men and Masters you are or do I have to assign you some sort of humiliating punishment for causing such a scene?" he demanded. Neither of them answered, and simply adverted their eyes, they would behave.

"Good," Mario's brow smoothed out and he brushed something invisible, perhaps some wrinkles, off the front of his uniform. "Now than, you two have proven well that you have good material, Altair, Darim is the top of the fifth class, Malik, Tazim is shaping up to be one of the brightest boy we've seen in a long time."

Malik lifted his hand, just slightly, a permission to speak. Mario nodded at him, "While I mean no disrespect sir, but I am not comfortable fathering a child with a man I hate," and Altair glared at him and Malik gave him a scathing look out of the corner of his eye.

"I feel the same," Altair said quickly before Mario could speak. Mario sent him a look that said 'be quiet, you do not have permission to speak', and he looked down again.

"Your feelings have been taken into consideration, we're well aware of your childish animosity towards each other," Malik opened his mouth but the Mentor sent him a hot look, shutting him up. "But you two both possess superior genes. Altair, you have all twelve modes of the Eagle Vision, something that hasn't been seen since my own great grandfather, and Malik you're one of our sharpest minds, our best support. It would be stupid to not see what would come of your union," and Altair clenched the arms of his chair, grinding his teeth. He wanted to speak, but training kept him silent and obedient. "You both have two options, you can do this of your own will and go down to the Nursery to do as commanded. Or, we will sedate you. Your personal baggage is not of interest to the Order, we are interested in creating the best men and women to fight the Templars. Do I make myself clear?" he asked sharply.

"Yes sir," Altair short of growled. There was nothing he nor Malik could do about this. They'd been given the ultimatum and come high or low waters the Order would be mixing these genes. Damn it all. Malik gave his own quiet agreement.

"Good," Mario said firmly, "Both of you may leave, you have till the end of the month to go down to the Nursery, before the season starts."

Altair stood with a jerk, "Yes sir," he said again, Malik, who was even more irritant about the whole thing than him didn't even say anything, he just nodded and left the office. Altair followed a few seconds after, to give Malik room. Behind him he heard Mario sigh tiredly and mutter a quiet 'novices' under his breath. Altair closed the door behind him.

—

Malik left the Nursery, with it's soft pastel colors and cheerful decor, feeling more than a little defiled. The last time he'd been to the Nursery it had been under very different circumstances. For starters, he hadn't hated the other half of the pairing he'd been told to make a child with.

Jessabelle had been a nice young woman with a mind like a machine and while not a Master had unlocked seven modes of the Eagle Vision, Malik, despite his rank and age on her, had only unlocked four, and hadn't changed since their joining. They'd gotten to know each other after being told they'd been chosen to be paired together, Malik had been surprised, he had never thought he'd get any children. The slots were very competitive and often the Order gave them to people who wanted them, or at least if they petitioned early enough. Malik would have been content without a child, passing on his genes didn't mean as much to him as it did to others. But the Order had intervened and given him his partner in Jessabelle. He'd had some feelings for her, and had taken her to his bed… often, but she'd been sent on mission a few weeks before Tazim was born. She'd ended up killed in action and Malik had been shocked by his own broken heart. That had been the last time he'd given thought to the Nursery, and that had been nine years ago, now Tazim was in the second class, and had clearly taken after his mother, her more gentle nature, and mind like a machine. He'd already unlocked an Eagle Vision, rare for his age, but not unheard of.

Altair had unlocked three by the time they'd started their training as novices, though had told no one until. It brought his thoughts full circle, and why he felt like he'd just been… taken advantage of really. He knew that in normal society forcing someone to share genes was both illegal and considered rape. This however was not kinder society, this was the Brotherhood of Assassins. He'd had a chance to leave it when he'd been younger, he could have left and no one would have stopped him. But he'd stayed, like most did, and he was had to do what they told him to, those were the rules. Malik wouldn't have been so apposed to the idea if it had been anyone but Altair, after all, he and Jessabelle had been forced into it, joining without choice. At least there was potential for romance there though, not like with Altair. Pompous asshole.

That was really the whole issue, that it was Altair. He wouldn't have cared if it was anyone else. Literally it could have been anyone else. But because of who it was Malik felt like he'd just been defiled and felt more than a little disgusted in handing over genetic material to the doctor at the Nursery. He'd rather wipe this entire experience off his memory.

First though he wanted to take a shower.

* * *

Okay so this IS NOT THE END. The thing is though that I WILL NOT be posting this on , at all, other than this chapter. If you want to read the rest of this, including the already posted second chapter you need to go to my writing blog which is shotgunsandstars on Tumblr OR my AO3. AO3 stands for Archive Of Our Own, which is a fic site without rating restrictions. As of this very second it isn't posted on AO3 as I have a flight in a few hours and a shit ton more work to do but it'll be there later today or early tomorrow (9/11 or 9/12). So, comment if you want (those are always appreciated) but to find the rest you're ganna have to track it elsewhere.


	2. Delta Down

eh, changed my mind. I'll be catching ff. net up on this story as I feel like it. You can still view the entire story on AO3 and my writing blog.

* * *

Malik turned away from his computer terminal and rubbed his eyes. Too long staring at a computer didn't hurt, his third mode of Eagle Vision counteracted the strain a computer screen had on the eyes, but sometimes it was hard for this mode to fade. He looked up when his partner in crime thumped down into the chair next to him.

"Drink, you look like a bloody zombie," Shaun informed him and put a cup of coffee down next to his keyboard.

"At least it isn't that dirty piss water you drink," Malik said, Shaun ignored the ribbing, they'd been working together long enough for the younger man to be used to Malik's own brand of affection. The British red head was almost ten years his junior, but knew more than just about anything than anyone Malik had ever met. That being said he had only the most basic Eagle Vision, zoom, and the cyber sight.

"I miss anything while I was gone?" the red-head asked and sipped from his travel mug.

"Whole lot of nothing," Malik said and leaned back in his chair.

"Heh, figured. This is a pointless recon mission," he groaned and pressed the heel of one hand to his eyes. "Honestly men of our caliber shouldn't be here, this is a job for lesser experienced support. I mean, just last week I led a Master into a high security government center, and then back out again," Shaun was always the best bitcher. That's what Malik liked about him.

"I know Shaun," Malik said and took a sip of his coffee. He did have to admit though, even if he was a tea drinking weenie he did know exactly how Malik took his coffee. "I was there," it wasn't like Shaun could work by himself. He was a good tech, but his limitation was all in his inability to see, a serious sore spot.

"Thank you for reminding me Malik, I only have two eyes and a fully functioning frontal lobe," Shaun sniped right back.

"Liz still sick?" he asked mildly. Liz was Shaun's two-year old with, who would on the outside be his wife, the genius tech Rebecca. She didn't run support like him and Shaun, but instead was the Red Queen, the head core programmer who tracked their computer system and got to create new rooms for the novice and training simulator rooms. It was an awesome job, but had a lot of responsibilities. She had all four electrical Eagle Vision modes unlocked, plus three non support types, an impressive feat for someone in tech, to have more than three modes. It was why she was the Red Queen, and not just some run of the mill program admin or even a core programmer.

Shaun's entire persona changed, "Yes," he said, "the nurses at the Nursery say there's nothing to worry about, just a cough…" he didn't further air his worry.

It had been a fight two years ago for the higher ups to even agree to Shaun and Rebecca's union since while Shaun was brilliant, he had a weak immune system, some bad genes from their base in the European continent before they'd all migrated here after the Templars dug them out of hiding. Rebecca was also a star, the best there was in terms of tech, they had reservations about allowing the two to join. They'd denied the two for five years prior even, but when they'd thought to join Rebecca with someone else the entire upper brass had found themselves locked out of the computer system, and the Core room sealed up tighter than a drum. Rebecca had not been happy with anything they'd planned. It had been a nice reminder to everyone in the fortress that while the Mentor and the other high Masters were their leaders, that they were not powerless in their lives if they didn't like how things were going. After that they'd let Rebecca and Shaun join, it had resulted in Liz, who'd picked up Shaun's weaker immune system and everyone who knew the two knew they worried whenever she got sick since if anything happened to her they wouldn't be able to try again. The Order would never sanction another child between them, and Shaun would probably be black listed (hell he probably already was), from ever getting to join with someone again.

"She'll be fine," Malik said kindly and patted the younger man on the shoulder. "Colds go around the Nursery all the time."

"Yeah, but-

"Won't do you any good to worry about it," Malik said sternly.

"You're right. You're right," and Shaun rubbed his face with a groan.

"She's, thankfully, more of her mother than you, she's too stubborn to stay sick," he teased.

"Support, this is delta-four, do you copy?" a voice suddenly sounded in his ear.

"Delta-four this is support, we read you loud and clear, what seems to be the problem?" Malik turned back to his monitor and his Eagle Vision settled over his sight.

"What am I looking at support?" the Assassin's voice trembled just a bit.

"We do not have visual delta-four, I repeat we do not have visual."

"Shit," a new voice came over comms. "Support this is delta-six."

"I have you delta-six," Shaun said as Malik tried to establish visual from four.

"Delta-four, turn on your camera."

"It's on," four stammered.

"Shit," Malik muttered, "Hold on delta-four, something must be interfering with the fe-

"Support, this is delta-three, I need a medevac; now! Two is down."

Malik's fingers traced across the screen, brining up vitals for the six Assassins they were guiding. Up till now it had been a boring task, mostly silence over the comms between them and delta. They were in the Rockies, looking for… something, Malik wasn't sure what; none of them were. "Delta-three establish visual," he ordered as he scanned the readout of two. "Everyone turn on your fucking cameras or so help me by the God I will tear you all a new ass when you report back to base."

"Camera on," he got a resounding response from three different voices.

"Support, I need that medevac," three said.

"There is nothing wrong with delta-two, delta-three," Malik said. He turned to Shaun, "Get a damn program admin down here, we need an interface," he barked and Shaun leapt from his seat and was out of the room in a moment. "Delta squad, do you read me on all channels?" he asked, once more speaking to the field agents. He got four 'I hear you support'. "Tell me what the hell is going on," he said sharply.

"Support this is delta-five. I think… we were attacked."

"You think?"

"One, two and now six are down."

"We need a medevac," three said, she sounded on the edge of hysterics. He looked up both her and two and understood, she and two had been joined this season. Probably under more understanding circumstances than his own. No time to think of that now though.

"Delta-three there is nothing wrong with delta-two, his vitals are fine, as are delta-one and delta-six. Delta-five, report, tell me what the fuck is going on. Why is delta-three saying delta-two needs a medevac?"

"He's down, and not responding support," five said, "We were nearing our outer perimeter destination when there were… some flashes of light, one and two went down. Another went out a few moments ago, six went down. We're now holding behind cover."

"Hold tight delta," Malik said and muted his mic as the door was pushed open. A program admin followed in Shaun's wake.

"Situation," he asked, his skin tight suit looked slippery in the light of the screens. His eyes were maxed out as well as special caps placed over them to keep their moist when they were open for long periods of time, they left his eyes blank, white, and expressionless.

"Something's jamming the visual link, and either I'm getting false reads on vitals for half my squad, or there's something wrong with them," Malik said. The program admin just nodded and moved towards a terminal that was mostly unused by him and Shaun. "Delta do you copy?" Malik asked.

"Delta-four I hear you support. There was another flash of light, three and five are down."

"Remain calm delta-four. We have a program admin on site," he said reassuringly as the program admin in question seemed to sink into the terminal. The terminal buzzed and he pulled out a dozen wires from a pop open compartment and in the span of a few seconds had connected them into ports along his neck spine in his suit. They didn't 'plug' into his body, but snapped onto external ports that connected with implants all program admins had put in when they took up the title. Two more wires were connected to the underside of his wrist and the terminal dimmed.

"Support," four said quietly.

"We're here delta-four," Malik said quickly.

"I'm getting pretty freaked right now, support."

Malik and Shaun traded looks, "We need to get him out of there," Shaun said, the connection between them and four muted, but only on their end.

"Not till we have visual. If the program admin can get it working we'll stick around a few moments. If he can't, we'll pull him out."

"The others?"

"There is nothing wrong with them," Malik said firmly.

"Vital feedback is accurate," the program admin suddenly said, forehead almost touching the terminal screen. The terminal whirled and flickered, though whatever the program was doing was beyond Malik, he was support and not tech.

"And visuals?" Malik asked.

"Coming online."

"Delta-four you still there?" Malik asked.

"Y-yeah, I'm still here," he said and both Malik and Shaun resumed their seats.

"Good, good. Your camera is turned on, right delta-four?"

"Yeah, it is."

"Admin, where are those damn visuals?" Shaun snapped.

"Coming," the admin said, his voice bland, because he was deep in the circuitry, Malik had no idea what he was doing.

"What do you see delta-four?" Malik asked.

"I don't even know support," he actually whimpered.

"Admin!" Shaun yelled.

"Visuals online," the admin said mechanically and six new screens blossomed around them. Malik shoved five aside and brought up delta-four's.

"We have you delta-four, it's going to be okay."

"Losing link," the admin sounded confused.

"I need you to give us a view delta-four, can you do that?"

"Are you going to get me out of here after I do?"

Shaun looked at him, aghast, because Assassins didn't run. Usually fear was simply trained out of field operatives. "Yes, we are delta-four," he said in Malik's place. He left Malik to deal with the field operative as he called up an evac.

"Losing link," the admin said again, sounding irritated now.

"You need to do it quickly delta-four, visuals are shaky."

"Okay."

"Give us a full panorama if you can," he said. Delta-four's camera bobbed as he nodded and slowly raised above his cover. Shaun next to him was quiet.

"What in the name of the God," he breathed and Malik was just as stunned. Delta-four did a slow spin.

"Link lost," the admin said a second before the screen cut out.

"Support?" delta-four asked.

Malik looked at Shaun, "Evac is on it's way delta-four, get out of there and rendezvous with them."

"Oh thank the God," delta-four practically sobbed and they heard him move.

"Visual link restored," the admin said and abruptly the camera cut back in, showing the bobbing view of delta-four running before bursting out into daylight. The terminal whirled, "All systems are at adequate levels of operation," he said and they heard the snapping as he unplugged.

"What was the problem?" Shaun asked the admin when the man turned to them.

"No idea," his voice was normal again, not the strange monotone admins took when interfacing. "I have a data report on the situation, I'll take it back to the Core, we'll analyze what was interfering with the link."

"Good," Shaun said, Malik was talking to delta-four, about nothing really, just so the Assassin knew he was there. "Thank you admin," he added.

"Mmhm, lets hope this doesn't happen again," the admin frowned, "Safety and peace brothers," he said as he walked out.

"Safety and peace," they called after him. Shaun turned back to his monitor and pulled up the other five cameras that had been going during the link connection. Most of it was nothing, just the ceiling.

"It's days like this I'm glad I'm support," Shaun said.

"Why do you say that?" Malik asked, zero-four's vitals were now at normal levels and Malik felt comfortable leaving him alone to make it to the rendezvous point, four klicks away from his current position.

"Because, look at this," Shaun grabbed the screen that showed a base readout for the other five members of delta. "All of them, perfectly fine," and then he brought up zero-four's video and scrolled through to one part. "But bloody look at them," he demanded. Malik frowned. They were all lying prone, on their backs and sides. Who was very obviously zero-three laying over zero-two, holding him close to her. "And you know the Mentor is going to send more of our brothers after them, to retrieve them."

"You would just have us leave them there?" Malik demanded. "That how they do it in Europe Shaun?" Malik felt his temper rise.

Shaun's lips became thin, but he neither took the bait, nor refuted it. Since the fall of the European fortress years ago it had been a sore spot for all the Assassins who'd been retrofitted into the two remaining ones, one in Asia, somewhere in the Chinese desert, and this one here in North America situated between two of the Great Lakes, and north of the capital of the largest nation on the continent, the Free Republic of the North, or the FRN. Shaun turned away from him.

"I'll call this up the chain," Malik said, not to be confrontational. Shaun nodded mutely and watched zero-four's video feed. Malik got ahold of a Master quickly and relayed the situation about five downed field operatives as well as the interference to their video link. The most pressing matter to them though was several members of their members were strangely comatose and once zero-four was back in a closer bureau and debriefed they'd send in a retrieval unit.

A while later, after he and Shaun had shifted through all the data and had delta zero-four had been picked up in the Rockies Malik finally stood up and stretched. They'd been sitting a long time. "I need a drink," Malik groaned.

"Or three," Shaun agreed.

"Come down to the canteen with me?" he asked as they turned off their terminals.

"Can't, me and Bec are going to go and see Liz and having a nice relaxing, romantic night," Shaun smirked, "She's even worse off than me, holed up in the Core all day and worrying her head off about Liz."

"Ah," Malik nodded in understanding as they left their comm room and headed towards the elevators to take them to the upper levels as the Core and comm rooms were some of the bottom-most floors.

"How's your little one?" Shaun asked as Malik pressed the button to call the elevator.

"Tazim? He's doing fine, they're at the third level in his class."

"Uhg," Shaun groaned, "I hated third level." Malik chuckled. "But I didn't mean Tazim," an elevator dinged open and they stepped to the side to enter the one next to the one in front of them, "Didn't you get roped into this year's season?"

Malik rolled his eyes almost violently, "Don't remind me."

Shaun blinked, surprised, Malik knew his reaction was not common, most people were overjoyed when they got to participate in the season. "I didn't realize you were so petty," Shaun said as the door closed.

"Coming from you that's a scream Shauny," Malik sent him a bland look.

"So your kid's half of someone you hate, big deal. Still your kid. Personally, I'd love to know Liz was going to get a sibling. You even tell Tazim he's going to be a brother?"

Malik didn't answer right away, "Shaun, how would you feel if Rebecca hadn't put her foot down and the Order had made her join with someone else?"

"Well, I'd probably be pissed. But I know Becca would be happy, she loves children, ya know?" he shrugged a little. "The guy they wanted to join her with was a weirdo anyway, brainiac, but that was it, five EVs, top IQ, one of the other core programmers. Nice guy honestly, he wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea of joining with Bec though, she's kinda like their mom, he was grateful it didn't happen."

"My situation suddenly seems a lot less weird," Malik said.

"Exactly, so shut up, man up, and at least go down to the fucking Nursery you big yellow git. Not like he's going to be staking the place out to make you feel uncomfortable," and Malik was surprised when the elevator dinged, they were too low for the residential areas, where he and Shaun were going.

"Hey!" Malik yelled when Shaun suddenly shoved him out of the elevator.

"You'll thank me for this," Shaun said and the elevator doors closed before Malik could dart back in. He looked around to figure where the hell he'd been dumped. He frowned deeply realizing he was in the Nursery.

—

When the news came about almost an entire unit had gone missing the fortress started to buzz. The novices were kept out of the loop, as they usually were, they needed to focus on their training, Once the remaining Assassin had been debriefed and sent back to the fortress gears started to turn and like a sleeping wild animal the Order woke up, shook itself and prepared. Though no one was hurt the very fact that something had knocked out five full Assassins was enough to set everyone on edge.

Altair, along with eleven other Masters were being sent to clean up the mess and retrieve their fallen comrades. They left soon, but before that Altair had found himself down in the Nursery. It had been a month since the start of the season and all the AWCs were full. When not in use the AWCs were clear, and filled with a pale yellow liquid that kept them sterile during the year. However during the season they glass was frosted over, the normal transparent surface made opaque.

He stood in front of the AWC with the embryo that would be his new son or daughter in full uniform, clothes dark, tight and with a mottled camo pattern on them, and reinforced with a semi solid to resist bullets in key places while still allowing him great flexibility. It was a modern armor and when you put on the helmet sealed up tight with a breathing apparatus so that foreign contaminant couldn't get in.

He frowned knowing that this could be the last time he ever saw this AWC. Before being sent on a mission he always visited his children, he'd already seen Sef and Darim and said goodbye and he'd see them again soon. That was always the fear that you wouldn't come home on a mission, and most of the Masters he was going with had done the same as him and said goodbye to their children and/or partners. After all this was a dangerous mission and it had downed an entire squad of Assassins, Altair might not come back.

Altair took a deep breath. "If I don't come home, Malik better not lie to you," was all he said in the empty room. He rolled his eyes to himself thinking that. Of course he would. All the more reason to not get killed on this mission.

'Alpha-one, where are you?' his helmet suddenly spoke.

He put it on and walked out of the nursery, pressing a switch that sealed the helmet to the rest of the suit as he walked out. "I'm here," he said into the radio and his visor came online. There were no 'eye holes', just an internal camera that projected an image onto the flat front of the helmet, it could also be dissolved into straight clear plastic if anything happened to the camera.

"Yeah but where are you? We're leaving," came support's irritant's voice. He didn't know who was his support team and they didn't know who he was. That was the point, they couldn't let emotions cloud their judgement since a lot of field agents had partners in support.

"Nursery, I'll be right up," and the elevator dinged when he pressed the button and he stepped into it.

"Well hurry up, you're making everyone hold on for you."

Altair smirked to himself and pulled up the comm channel for the others he was working with. "Boys," he called.

"A-one?"

"I'm running a little late. I had to check on my baby."

"Support giving you a hard time?"

"What do you think?"

"Alpha-one this is not-

"Put a fucking sock in it support," said one of his men, alpha-three. He was Alpha-one, head of this eleven man team and unlike support they all knew who each other were though during missions would only refer to each other by call sign. "Boy's got a baby this season."

"Does it sound like I give a shit?" their support asked. "Transport-

"Your voice is so sweet to my ears support," alpha-nine piped in, "What's your name? When this is done I'm ganna find you and make sweet love to you," and over the comm line everyone laughed since both nine and support were men. There wasn't anything weird about two guys together, but sometimes support guys got the short end of the stick by being field agent's 'bitches'.

"Give me a fucking excuse alpha-nine. I will hang your ass on my wall."

"Oh baby you'll have to come to the canteen with me first," and nine made a kissy noise into the comm link.

"Alpha-one," another voice came over the comm link, even through the monotizing voice changer Altair could hear his accent. European of some kind though he couldn't place it. "What's you ETA?" he was a lot calmer than their other support who Altair could hear having a bitch fit with the rest of his squad.

"About forty seconds," he said over the one way with the calm support as the elevator dinged. Then he opened comms up again, "Ladies!" he called.

"Go to hell, one," ten called, a woman.

"Would you prefer I call you novices than?" he asked.

"One you better be in the hanger-

"Shut up support," and he muted the channel, "We all ready?" he asked, totally down to business.

"We're in transport waiting for you," six said.

"Okay I'm there," he said as he boarded the ramp onto the heli. His men (even if there were women there) were sitting in two rows of five on either side of the transport. "Who's our fly boy?" he opened a new comm to their pilot.

"Call sign's Hellhound. Hello Alpha-One, glad you could finally make it," the pilot said sarcastically.

"Hey I'm already getting lip from support. I don't it from you too," he said. "We good to go?"

"One, support's pissed you muted his channel," two said with a giggle.

"Tell him I'll flirt with him later," and they all laughed. "Buckle up everyone, we're ganna be away in just a minute," and he walked to the front of the heli where the pilot was. He closed the comms for his squad save for six, his second, but kept Hellhound open. "So what's our ET for liftoff Hellhound?" he asked, standing between the pilot and navigator seats.

"Soon as we get confirmation from support A-one," Hellhound said.

"Who's our Nav?" he added.

"Hellcat, reporting," Hellcat just sounded like a spunky chick, and she was.

"Hellcat and Hellhound, what's this bird called? Hell Carrier?"

"Yes, actually," Hellhound said and he and Hellcat high fived, clearly enjoying their word play.

"Very funny. So, lift off?"

"Waiting on support. He's currently bitching up a storm that you've muted him."

"Oh bother," Altair huffed a sigh and muted everyone else but support.

"You tell that shit for brains alpha-one to turn on his comm right now or I swear to the God I'm going to report him for insubordination. This is a serious situation and his shenanigans aren't appropriate-

"Hello support."

"Alpha-one, oh good. For a second I'd hoped you'd died and maybe we'd get a competent Master for our lead," they growled through the voice changer.

"Awww, you're a sweetie you know that?"

"Go to hell."

"What's the hold up? I thought this was an important mission. Now you're the one keeping us grounded."

"Have you run full specs?"

Altair rolled his eyes behind his helm, "Two through eleven," he called over the open comms.

"Sir!" they responded in unison.

"Are your suits working properly?"

"Sir!"

"Weapons secure?"

"Sir!"

"Everyone buckled in?"

"Sir!"

"Did everyone remember to go to the bathroom? Cause we ain't landing if you have to go potty boys and girls."

There was some laughter over the comm, "We're good sir," six said.

"Good! Support we've done specs now stop being up my ass. You ain't my partner and only he gets that privilege," and everyone laughed again.

"Fuck you alpha-one."

"Come over here and we'll see what I can do," Altair said sweetly.

"Uhg. I'm hoping for a transfer," support grumbled.

"Love you too baby," Altair teased. "Hellhoud?" he asked.

"Lift off in forty. You might wanna buckle in sir," Hellhound said. Altair took off his weapons and stowed them under his seat before sitting down next to six and strapping himself in. "Hang onto your butts," Hellhound announced and then the heli lurched into motion and was speeding out of the hanger, the sound of it's massive belly roter amazingly quiet for it's size. Light came from the window up front but the back had no windows. They were on their way to the Rockies.

He opened a private comm with six as he pushed all the others down, though they could reach him if they needed to. "Give me reads," he said.

"Sending," six said and they tapped the sides of their helmets together. The data jumped across Altair's visor and he turned down the external camera so that his vision was mostly black and the data sprawled across it. He blinked through the read outs and the briefing, though he'd memorized most of it. "You worried?" six asked.

"Not in the slightest," Altair said, leaning back in his seat. "It'll be easy. Go in, retrieve, half go back with the deltas, the rest of us push forward."

"What if what happened to them happens to us?" six asked.

"We'll be fine, six," and he gave six a comforting shake. "Support," he called.

"Hello alpha-one," said the calmer of the two. "You'll have to forgive my partner, he's a bit… aggravated today."

"Oh really?"

"Yes."

"You're our only two boys?"

"We have a core programmer with us and two program admins with us in case visuals go down again," the calm support said.

"Wow, a core?"

"Yep. They're interfacing right now actually."

"Shit," and his skins crawled, core programmers and program admins freaked him out something fierce. They were all pale and spidery with their black skin tight cat suits and white capped eyes and when interfacing their got all weird and mechanical. "They aint messing around yet?"

"Not yet alpha-one. They're running basic electrical diagnostics on your suits, making sure everything's fine. They should be exiting after that and won't be with you again until you hit the hot zone."

"Roger," Altair nodded. "You know the support who led Delta into this?"

"… Uh, we were."

He motioned to his men, they all flipped on open comms. "You guys led them into this?"

"Yes."

"What the hell were you thinking?"

"Hey, don't get pissy with me. Everything was fine. It all went to shit in about a minute. This mission's main objective is extraction, don't forget. So no cowboy shit, and no heroics, got it?"

"Sure thing support," and nine made a rude gesture support couldn't see since the camera feed wasn't online. The others laughed though Altair couldn't hear them, they were muted. "Anything else we should know?"

"Everything you need to know was in your briefing, and that's about as much as we know ourselves," he said.

"Okay," he opened a link to Hellhoud, "Pilot, what's our ETA?"

"Five hours, sir," Hellhound said.

"Great," Altair muttered. "Okay kids," he said to his squad, "we got five hours to kill. Lets not bring down the heli in our boredom," and now he heard some of them laugh. Five hours. Lovely.

—

Hellhound put them down in a shallow valley. They were two klicks the hot zone and they'd make up that difference in less than an hour. Once they were all out of the heli they checked each other over, making sure weapon harnesses were put on correctly and they ran personal diagnostics. They were all set.

"Ready?" Altair called through comms.

"Sir!"

"Form up, we got a hike," and they formed a column behind him and they set off at a brisk pace. "Keep the heli warm Hellhound, we won't be long."

"Should I keep your seat warm too, sir?"

"Yeah, that'd be great," Altair replied, Hellhound chuckled and then they broke the connection.

The trek wasn't too long, and full of rocks and foliage. They saw no animals. Then they entered the hot zone, and you knew it because their screens became bordered with red. "Alpha-one," a smooth, cool, female tone spoke up. Altair shivered. Core programmer.

"That's me."

"I'm Serenity," and he knew it was a call sign, there were no real names during missions.

"What can I do for you Serenity?"

"I'm going to ride along with you if that's okay?"

"Sure, knock yourself out."

"Thank you. My program admins are riding along with alpha-six and alpha-ten, so you know."

"Okay," he nodded a little. "You know what sort of shit we're going into Serenity?"

"We've been reviewing both the data and the cameras from the fallen deltas. They've been moved since their mission, we're not sure how or why or in what configuration. But they all still seem healthy enough."

"Well that's good."

"We're approaching," and a map was suddenly overlaid Altair's vision. Had he been any less trained he would have jumped, as it was he barely flinched in surprise.

"Warn a guy next time you want to hijack his HUD," he said.

"Apologies. It is simply easier," she said. "This is the route they took," and a green line appeared on the top down map. A collection of blue dots was them. "I suggest an alternative route," and a yellow line appeared. Altair held up his fist as he came to a stop.

"Six," he called through comms.

Six came forward. Altair grabbed him by the shoulder and bumped their helmets together, transferring the data on his screen to six's screen. "We're taking the yellow, pass it on to the others," he said. Six nodded and Altair let him go. As a second six had an easy transfer interface to get information from Altair to the rest of their squad quickly. The bump only worked between firsts and seconds, and seconds had a mass transfer program to the rest of the squad. "Everyone got it?" Altair asked.

"Sir!"

"All right, lets move out. I wanna get this done before dark," and they set out again.

Gradually the foliage vanished and they followed the yellow path Serenity had suggested, up the side of the mountain. They stopped to rest for a few minutes when they were about to enter what was being referred to as the 'black zone' because video feed back to support was cut off.

"All of you be careful," support chimed in as they rested up before heading out.

"This is why they sent us in," Altair said.

"We don't fuck up like delta," four said smartly.

"We don't know what you're up against. Be careful," support stressed.

"Sure, if it makes you feel better."

"I said no heroics," said the support with an accent.

"Support, we're Alpha," seven said and everyone could hear the roll in his eyes, "cream of the cream of the crop, you ain't gotta tell us."

"Well you have a shit for brains one," said the irritated support.

"There is a reason I'm one you know," Altair now rolled his eyes. "And it's not just because I can put up with lippy, know it all, support boys on their man periods. Now unless either of you idiots have anything important to add we're going into radio silence," and he switched off his comms all the way. He knew in a pinch Serenity could turn them back on, but for now they were running silent.

They arrived at the cut tunnel Delta had gone down. The rock wasn't smooth, but human hands had definitely cut into it. Altair's eyes faded into night vision as they entered the cave, his visor fading to clear instead of matte black. Those with that mode of EV did so as well, others took heat or simply switched on external night. But they were Alpha, most of them had one of those. He thought only eight and three didn't, but that was okay as they made up for it in other ways.

The world was green and gray and slightly foggy at the edges as the EV worked best at the center of the eyes but didn't work so well towards the edges so while helpful both heat and night vision made you partially blind in the periphery. The tunnel wasn't anything impressive, rough cut rock in one direction; straight. Their red border turned yellow as they walked, they entered the black zone. Altair motioned and over the external mics that fed to the helmet so he could hear noises outside his helmet he heard the soft scrape of weapons being drawn. Altair's preferred weapon was the hidden blade and with a flick of his hand the slightly curved blade slid out against the outside of his hand. They continued to walk, but were now ready if whatever attacked Delta attacked them.

Then at about five hundred feet in he saw it, five mounds, lined up next to each other in a row across the tunnel; Delta. He quickly went next to them, beckoning eleven, and six over as the others spread out around them, facing both directions. They crouched next to him. Eleven, their medic, quickly looked them over as best he could without removing their helmets. They were covered in blankets and looked totally normal. He signed to Altair in quick code that they were not only breathing, but seemed to be in fine shape. Altair nodded and gave a short blast of air through his external speakers to get everyone's attention. "Two through five plus seven and eleven, you're going back to the Hell Carrier with delta. Six, eight, nine, ten, you're with me," he spoke very softly as he stood up.

Alpha gave, silent, affirmative signs and those he'd ordered went to delta and picked them up in a fireman carry style. They gave him one last sign before setting off back towards the entrance with their cargo. Altair motioned to the rest of them and they started deeper down the tunnel.

"Alpha-one," suddenly support broke radio silence, "confirm you aren't down."

"Still here. Two through five, seven and eleven are on their way back to the heli. I have six, and eight through ten with me. We're all fine," and then he cut off the comm again.

There wasn't a real change in the tunnel for another hundred feet. "One," Serenity's voice suddenly came online. He grunted. "I'm detecting seismic activity," she said.

"What sort?" he asked, stopping his men.

"I'm not sure. If you could get closer to one of the walls I could use your suit sensors to gain more data," he went and leaned against the wall for her, motioning to his helm that his tag along was asking him of this. The others formed around him, facing outward.

"So? What's it look like Serenity?" he asked.

"High seismic activity. Coming towards you at an increasing speed and violence."

"So what? Earthquake?"

"No."

"Then what?"

They all jolted when the tunnel suddenly shuddered. They braced themselves. Nothing happened. They waited. "Cave in," she said softly.

"Where?"

The tunnel shook again and there was a sound of cracking stone. "Over you."

"Run," Altair said urgently over comms. "Cave in." Alpha took off at a dead run. Altair made sure the others were in front of him before following. The tunnel shook harder, but nothing fell. Nine stumbled at a massive crack and Altair grabbed him, throwing him forward before the ceiling gave out, nearly on top of him. Rocks smashed into Altair'd helmet and he went down, his screen going black.


	3. Alpha-Twelve

"-e. Alpha-one respond. Alpha-one please respond. For fucks sake you better not be dead. I am not reporting you dead to the Mentor. Alpha-one respond right now."

Altair blinked awake in a daze. His head was spinning and he was seriously disorientated. His screen was black and dead, but he could hear support yelling at him through the comm.

"Alpha-one, respond," they were saying. Altair was still trying to get his barrings, not an easy thing to do when you couldn't see. He reached up to his helm and manually restarted it via knob that was flush with the rest of the helm on his jaw. He twisted it and his screen flickered. He had no external camera and most of his everything else wasn't working properly either. "Alpha-one-

"God shut up support," Altair groaned.

"Oh good, you're alive," he honestly sounded relieved.

"Yes, just… give me a second," and he grunted, still laying on his back. He got his visor to clear to transparent and that was good. He blinked a few times and night vision kicked as well as a few small, low level, lights on his suit to help him see in said night vision.

His head cocked to the side at what he was seeing. Every rational thought told him he shouldn't be seeing what he was seeing. He shouldn't. But his eyes weren't lying to him. There… was a kid, standing over him. He looked about ten or eleven, with pale skin, his head was shaved and he was looking at Altair with Eagle Eyes, gold and yellow of someone with Eagle Vision. He was wearing a long sleeved white shirt and white pants and just… staring at him.

"The fuck?" he asked aloud though the kid couldn't hear him. The kid cocked his head back at Altair, like a bird would. It was weird. He checked if his external speakers still worked, they did, and he turned them on. "Hey kid," he said. They didn't seem startled by him.

"Alpha-one-

"Not now support," and Altair got to his feet. He made sure nothing was broken. He was fine, his vizor had a crack in it though, probably from a rock. Still the helmet did what it was supposed to do, take the beating instead of Altair's head. He turned back to the kid, meeting his Eagle Eyes with his own. He crouched in front of him, "Hey," he said, "What's your name?" The boy didn't answer. "C'mon, I'm not gonna bite, what's your name?"

After a moment the boy said, "Desmond."

"I'm Alpha-One."

"That's a funny name," Desmond said with a grin.

"Yeah it is isn't it? It's not my real name though."

"What's your real name?"

He muted support fully, "Altair. You can't tell anyone right now though."

"Why?"

"It's a secret," he said and crossed his hands on his knees. "Now, I'm Alpha-one, or one, or A-one. Got it?" Desmond nodded. "What are you doing down here?"

"I should ask you that. What are you doing here?"

"Looking for some people."

"Did you find them?"

"Yes. And you?"

"I live here," Desmond said and rubbed his ear. "Or I did."

"You did?" the fuck?

"I don't want to anymore. I wanna go with you," he said.

Altair looked around him, before him was the tunnel, behind was the rock. "Well I dunno if you've noticed Desmond, but I don't think we can go the way I came. Unless you know another way?" Desmond nodded. "You'll show me?"

"Yeah," he held out his hand. Altair took it. Desmond led him away from the rubble.

Altair switched off the external speakers. "Support, this is alpha-one, do you read?"

"Don't do that alpha-one," the irritated one huffed.

"So not in the mood for the mom treatment support. Be useful, give me data," he ordered seriously as the little boy led him down the tunnel. "The others?"

"Fine, they've left the hot zone, on the way to the Hell Carrier. Where are you?"

"On the other side of the rubble. I… have a guide."

"A what?" Altair explained the child. "What the fuck?"

"That's sort of what I said," and then they took a path off the main tunnel. This corridor was a lot more narrow, barely wider than Altair's shoulders, but very high and when Altair looked up he couldn't see beyond maybe twenty feet or so. He got the impression it was a lot taller though. It also curved slightly. Desmond didn't let go of his hand, though he had it twisted so it was on his shoulder now so it didn't scrape against the wall. "Support?" he answer and when he looked down he realized he was blind, his vizor having blacked out again. It did that when it lost power. He didn't panic and he didn't remove his helmet to see, as he could still feel Desmond's hand curled around his fingers, and his hand on the boy's shoulder. So he just kept walking as they followed the curve of the corridor.

All at once his helmet started working again about ten minutes later. "-pha-one, do you read?"

"I read you," he said and cleared his visor. They'd left the narrow corridor and were in a wider one that looked identical to the one they'd entered through.

"What the hell was that?"

"No clue support. I'm just following my guide."

"You trust this kid?"

"You have a better idea? Cause I'm all ears. Where's Serenity?"

"I'm here one," she said. "You went through a dead zone. All communications and electronics died. We couldn't hear or see your data. We thought something had happened."

"I'm fine," he assured them. He turned on the external speakers, muting himself. "Hey Desmond, we almost out?" The boy turned back and looked at him with his golden eyes. He nodded. "Great," Altair said and turned them off again opening his line with support, "He says we're almost out. What do my reads look like?"

"Not good, I can tell you that," support said. "As it is half of your readings are offline and we see a fracture on your helm. I assume falling rocks?"

"Yep. My camera's also busted."

"A lot of stuff looks busted," support said.

"I can't do it from here, but can I get patched through to the others?"

"I'm afraid not," Serenity said. "As it is only through my intervention are we even able to talk with you. Your helmet is significantly damaged. Are any systems on it operational?"

"Mics, speakers, this comm, the vizor opacity, a few read outs like temperature and CO2 meters. Most of my HUD is offline though and I can't connect comms with the rest of Alpha, or the Hell Carrier."

"I see. Tell me if you see this," she said and something pinged on his HUD.

"A dot?"

"No," she said. "This?"

"More dots."

"One?" and he was jerked out of his conversation with Serenity for Desmond calling him.

"Yeah?" he asked, turning down support and Serenity as the externals switched on. "What is it Desmond?"

"Down there?" and he pointed around a corner. Altair turned and was blinded by the sharp light coming from the end of the tunnel. Outside.

"Great, lets go."

"Uh…"

"What?"

Desmond looked down and Altair followed his gaze. Desmond wasn't wearing any shoes and his feet were not just dirty but also bruised and looked bloody. "It hurts," Desmond said with a frown.

"Shit," and without asking or thinking scooped Desmond up. The kid was paper light, as far as an eleven year old could be at least. He was skinny and hadn't quite hit his growth spurt yet so Altair could still hold him. He lifted one of his feet up to look, there were small wounds in the bottom of his feet from sharp rocks and were bleeding a little. "Why didn't you say anything?" he demanded. Desmond just shrugged. "All right, c'mon kid," and he started towards the light, turning down his eyes so he wasn't blinded by the intense light. Desmond wrapped his arms around Altair's neck and kept quiet.

"Support," he said.

"Got you."

"What's Alpha's ETA to the Hell Carrier?"

"They're about a klick from it."

"I'm ganna need a closer evac. Tell Hellhound half a klick from the hot zone, I'm about to hit daylight. Send up smoke when he's landed."

"What's the situation?"

"I have wounded."

"Roger that, we're relaying to Hellhound now," and it went silent for a bit. "Hellhound is taking off, the rest of Alpha has been informed. Eleven says you're 'an ass for making them double back'."

"Tell him to kiss it and maybe I'll feel some remorse." Support chuckled.

They hit daylight, Desmond whimpered a moment and pressed his face into Altair's shoulder. Too much light? Altair had his eyes dialed down already and his vizor dimmed to help combat the light. He started down the mountain, Desmond in his arms and a minute or so later he saw a thick red smoke. Hellhound. He headed towards it.

"Everyone's at the Hell Carrier, alpha-one," support inform him.

"Good, almost there," he said. "What's the situation? Serenity can you please try and patch me through?"

"I've been trying," she said.

"They've got delta strapped down, eleven has them on an IV drip."

"Okay, make sure everyone's sealed in their suits, including the deltas. I have a foreign body and I don't know if they have any contaminants. Hellhound and Hellcat should seal the pilot's compartment."

"Relaying."

"Also tell eleven to prepare to treat small wounds."

"Relaying."

Then he saw the Hell Carrier, sitting in a clearing like a big, fat, beetle, red smoke swirling around above it. Its underbelly turbine was quiet. "What's that?" Desmond asked, pointing.

"A heli," he said.

"What's a heli?"

"A flying machine," Altair said. "Drop the ramp," Altair said to support. The back of the heli opened and the ramp dropped. Altair boarded with Desmond. His men were seated, waiting, and he saw the deltas strapped up top to pull down stretchers. "Hey kids, miss me?" he asked.

"You look like hell, one," three said.

"Thanks," he huffed. "Eleven I got you a patient," and he walked over to where eleven was checking on a delta they'd strapped to the floor. Eleven looked up and though Altair couldn't see his face he read surprise. "Feet are bleeding, rocks, dirt."

"Where the hell did you find a kid one?" eleven asked.

"He found me," and Altair sat in his seat. "Someone tell Hellhound to get us the fuck out of here," he added and buckled in. Six nodded and a moment later the ramp was being drawn back and the rear door sealed. The heli rumbled as the bottom turbine started to whirl. Eleven sat across from Altair, shoving eight out of the way and eight got re-situated just as the heli lurched upwards at speed. He held onto Desmond who did the same to him and once they were cruising eleven unbuckled and grabbed his kit, kneeling in front of Altair.

"What's his name?" four asked.

"Later," Altair said. "For now everyone be nice to alpha-twelve," and his men laughed. Desmond smiled at them not scared at all. Weird kid, but whatever.

"So where did you find A-twelve?" seven asked.

"On the other side of the rubble," and Desmond winced when eleven cleaned his feet of blood and debris. "He was there when I came to."

"Damn," seven said. "What were you doing there kid?" he asked.

"I lived there," he said.

There was a silence, "Excuse me?"

"I lived there," he said said. "Ow," he added to eleven.

"Sorry. Running around without shoes on was a stupid idea though," eleven huffed.

"So what's in there? How do you live in there?" Desmond didn't answer. "Oi, twelve, asked you a question," seven said.

"I don't have to tell you," Desmond said.

"Ooooh, seven you just got told," nine said.

"Shut up nine. I will gut you like a fish."

"Hey, calm down," Altair interrupted. "Where we landing? Home, or Colorado?"

"Colorado," six said. "The bureau's expecting us. They've got a full medical team ready when we land."

"Perfect," Altair nodded. So that was like an hour and a half flight.

"Stop moving," eleven said to Desmond.

"It hurts though," he whined.

"It'll hurt more if you keep moving," eleven said sternly. "God one where'd you find such a wriggly kid?"

"I dunno he's doing pretty fine on this level," Altair's smirk was visible behind his clear vizor.

"Oh shut up," eleven grumbled.

—

They landed in Colorado around the time it was getting dark. In the past, before the Collapse, Colorado had been part of the United States, but Rebuilt Colorado was now a free country known as the Triad States of Colorado and encompassed a sizable portion of the south west of the northern continent. It was bordered against the Republic of California which owned the western coast from the Aztec off shot peninsula all the way up to what had once been the middle of British Columbia and the Free State of Utah which was a no fly zone after they started burning 'witches' two years ago. On it's other side was Texas which controlled all the rest of the territory that Colorado, California, the Aztec Empire, the US and the FRN didn't hold. As the FRN controlled most of the northern continent of America and the US the old southern states there wasn't much left for Texas.

The capital of Colorado was little better than a cesspool and in truth Colorado was a very poor country currently going through a civil war and a whole slew of revolts and coups had been going on for decades now. California just tried to stay out of the way, Utah didn't care and Texas and the FRN were trying to smooth things over with only so much success. Europe wanted nothing to do the Americas and was letting Colorado burn itself out. Some people said that eventually the FRN or Texas would annex it and it'd just be another province. Coloradans didn't like the sound of that and were fighting against that which meant fighting each other just furthering their strife.

The heli landed on the top of one a low building long enough for everyone to get out. Altair still carried Desmond in his arms as they left the heli, the others carrying the deltas. As soon as they'd disembarked the heli took off again. A heli in this city was quickly shot down or destroyed on the ground and the Hell Carrier shot up into the sky until it was less than a dot before turning east towards the closer Texan border.

They went down into the bureau, which was clean, but not too clean to not stand out, and the bureau leader was there waiting for them. He wore a respirator. "Alpha-one I presume?" he asked Altair.

"Sir," he saluted as best he could holding Desmond.

"We have a containment area for the boy till we know he's not carrying any diseases or contaminants," Altair nodded. "Sandy, show the rest of Alpha where they can put the Deltas."

"Of course, sir," Sandy was also wearing a respirator, her black hair tired back into a tail and either it was dyed or someone had a really awful sense of humor. The rest of his squad followed Sandy while Altair followed the bureau leader. He was led downstairs and down a hall to a room with a plastic tent set up in it.

"You can put him in there."

Altair nodded and opened the flap of the tent. Inside was a bed and a table as well as a machine that cycled and filtered the air. He put Desmond on the bed, but Desmond didn't let go. "Hey, I need to go."

"I don't want you to," Desmond said.

"It'll be fine twelve," he said gently, over the past hour and a half he'd endeared himself to the rest of the squad to the point that if one was ever added to their number they'd insist on calling them thirteen. "They need to make sure you're healthy."

"I am though."

"And that you're not sick."

"I'm not."

"And that you won't give us anything."

Desmond blinked at him, "I'm supposed to be out here. I'm not allowed to make you sick," and that was just confusing. What did that even mean? "I don't want to stay in here. I want to be outside. That's why I left. I want to be outside," he whined.

"If you're fine it shouldn't take long. Just relax. I'll see you soon," and he tugged Desmond's hands off him.

"Yeah but-

"Twelve," Altair said sternly, "you're part of my squad right?"

"Right," he nodded slowly.

"Well I'm one, meaning what I say goes. Alpha listens to me, and if you wanna be part of Alpha you need to too. Got it?"

"Yes one," he said, pouted.

"Good. It shouldn't take long," and he left, sealing the tent after him. "Good to go, sir," he told the bureau leader.

—

Eleven, who's real name was Diyari, was looking at him. He was stripped down to his skivvies as Diyari poked and prodded him showing his patience of a brick wall as his medic made sure he was fine. The medical team was busy with the Deltas and of Alpha only Altair had suffered any ill from the cave in. His vizor had been cracked worse than he thought Diyari thought maybe he had a minor concussion. Until he was sure no sleeping for Altair.

"I feel fine, Diyari," Altair sighed at him for not the first time.

"This is my job and my duty to say if you're fit or not."

"Yes, mom," Altair huffed.

Diyari chuckled, "I have it under good authority you actually had two of those."

"Go to hell, my genetics are no business of yours," he informed Diyari smartly. He was full of shit anyway, he had opposite parents. Diyari just chuckled.

"Okay one final test, make sure you didn't breathe anything that interfered with the EV," since the Templars had developed a gas that did so. "Classic," and Altair's vision washed out and he looked at Diyari, all golden eyed.

"You're blue," he said.

"Zoom," and the gray left and he zoomed into Diyari's face to the point he could actually see Diyari's nose hairs, gross. He gave an affirmative. "Hear this," and he blew on a dog whistle. Altair dialed his ears up and after a few seconds heard it, another affirmative. Diyari pulled out a heart rate monitor, "You're heart rate is fifty three," Diyari said, "bring it up to a flat sixty," and this was always one of the weird versions of EV that wasn't connected to a sense, but rather actually controlled a bodily function. It was helpful when the enemy had people or things on hand that could hear your heart rate though. It always took him a few seconds, since he didn't use it much, but he made his heart rate spike just sitting there. "Sixty five, dial it back," Altair took another few seconds, "Okay, you can put it to normal," and he removed the heart monitor.

"Isn't four good enough?"

"For anyone else? Yeah, four's good enough. But Mr. Alpha-One has all modes, we need to test at least half," and Altair groaned. "Three more, you'll live." Diyari went and switched off the lights, "Night vision," he ordered and Altair's eyes blazed golden, his pupil reflecting trace amounts of light "How many fingers am I holding up?" and he held up one, Altair told him one. "And heat too," after a moment his pupil glowed faintly red, "Fingers?"

"One up your ass."

"Altair just humor me."

"Three," he grumbled.

"Okay, now close you're eyes, we're doing the twelfth mode."

"Uhg, I hate this one," it was disorientating. But he closed his eyes and turned his ears up. They wouldn't hear the dog whistle, but it was echolocation. He tapped his finger on the table to give him a constant feed back. A picture of the room formed in his mind's eye, as did Diyari, moving towards him. Altair ducked when Diyari threw a punch.

"Good," and Altair opened his eyes, the room didn't look exactly like his ears told him it looked and he had a weird moment of dislocation. "That was seven, you're fine," Diyari said.

"So can I put my clothes on now?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Great, I know how much you loved ogling me Diyari, but I got standards."

"Fuck you One," Diyari said.

"If only you were so lucky," and Altair winked at him, Diyari rolled his eyes and Altair hopped off the table and grabbed his clothes which were folded up neatly next to him. "I have a concussion?" he added.

"It would have interfered with part of your EV," he said, "usually the Classic. So no, you don't."

"Great," and Altair pulled on his white shirt and black camo pants. "How pissed is command I fucked up the helm?"

"They understand it was an extraneous situation."

"You love big words, don't you Diyari."

"Almost as much as you love big dick-

"Oh… oh that was low," Altair informed him, not even mad. "I should make you run laps for that," he was pulling on his socks and shoes now.

"Yeah but you won't."

"You're so sure. Why not?"

"Cause I'm too pretty."

Altair snorted, "Sure thing pretty boy. Now lets go find the others, and maybe a drink yeah?"

"Sounds good to me, sir," Diyari nodded as Altair finished tying his black boots and they left the room.

—

The main bureau in Colorado was above ground. It was also in a not so great district. But that was good, it meant it was out of the way and the Templars probably didn't know it was here. Colorado was a high traffic area for the Ever War because of the political strife in the country. The Assassins mainly made sure that the Templars just stayed out of the way so that whatever did happen in Colorado was because of Colorado andnot because of Templar agenda. A lot of missions went on in Colorado, both in New Denver, and here in Marcusville, the capital.

Most of Altair's missions were in Colorado, and some in Utah before the entire NCC, the Northern Continent Conglomerate, had basically shut down its borders. Nothing went into or came out of Utah from North America, and very little came or went from other continents. That had been two years ago after the 'witch trials', a series of really disturbing trials where women who were thought to be both fertile and pregnant and were burned on stakes for being 'witches'.

It had seriously freaked the NCC and most of the world out that Utah thought to burn fertile women when they basically didn't exist. Especially not in the number the witches were, which was a dozen in a hundred miles. The Order had managed to save two before their trials and they currently lived in northern California. As it turned out neither of the woman they'd saved were fertile, and none of the woman burned had been either. Utah was just slightly insane. There were now no missions to Utah, as either there were no Templars there, or all Templars there. Either way it was better to just stay out of Utah for a while.

The bureau was home to a lot of their men. For all the fact that they only grew by less than two dozen every year or so the Order had a lot of men, for though while the best were bred they also let in outsiders. Most of the outsiders worked in the bureaus, field agents were almost exclusively Command stock with very few exceptions as you had to have EV to be a field agent and only bred Assassins had EV. Not to mention that since the fall of the European base they'd seen a rise in numbers as most had relocated here, as China was mostly silent and they hadn't heard from Australia in so long most people assumed it had been destroyed without them knowing. But then Australia in general had been silent for a long time to the rest of the world, not many people knew what was going on in there.

Bureaus housed everything you could need. There was a cantina, a med bay, interfacing terminals, a gym, places to sleep, and more. Altair was worried about the cantina, cause he was both starving, and needed a drink; preferably not in that order.

The rest of Alpha was already down there, dressed exactly like Altair, white Ts tucked into black pants, they wore normal clothes when not working, but since they were technically still working they were in relaxed uniform. "Hey kids," Altair called.

"One!" they cried as he sat down with them, Diyari took a seat next to his partner on the other side of the table. They were all crammed around one table with a giant plate of nachos and what looked like tequila.

"Someone get me a drink," Altair said tiredly.

"You got it old man," Sarah teased and poured him a shot of tequila.

"Oh hush you," he said since his entire squad were in their twenties, except for him and his second, Munahid, who were in their thirties. "This old man," he knocked back the shot, "can still drink you under the table," and they laughed. "And really? Nachos? You guys are classless."

"Well you weren't around to tell us to eat right dad," Jari chimed in, Diyari now in his lap.

"Well, children, if you had to get nachos I am at least going to assume you didn't get cheap shit."

"No, sir," Sarah chuckled.

"Good, so pass them over before they're all gone. I know you all have bottomless stomachs," and someone shoved the platter at him and handed him a plate, pouring him another shot of tequila. He put nachos on his plate, then shot the tequila. "Uhg, that is vile," he said making a face. His squad laughed at him.

"So you all spic and span?" Munahid asked.

"Yep, doc gave me a clean bill of health so even roughed up I could still kick all your asses," Altair declared.

"Well I wouldn't go that far," Diyari said. "I'd suggest only kicking half our asses so you don't throw out your hip or something."

Altair pointed at Diyari, "And you're first," he threatened teasingly, they laughed. "Any news on twelve?" he asked, nachos going into mouth.

"Apparently doing some blood work," Sarah said with a shrug.

"You going to tell us his name now?" Ehan asked, as always serious.

"Dishmun," he said, mouth full of food.

"What?"

Altair swallowed, "Desmond; the Amazing Boy in the Mountain," he said.

"Huh-

"I like twelve better," Sally piped up. "He can't be more than twelve anyway," she giggled and her sister rolled her eyes at her.

"Who's doing our debrief?" Altair asked, keeping on track of work until this shit was over.

"Sandy, in about two hours, give the medical team time to figure out what happened to Delta, see if they can wake them up, and if there is anything to worry about with twe-Desmond," Munahid said.

"Good. Time to eat and get ready for a nap," Altair said, meaning a nap during debrief, though he wouldn't, the others still enjoyed the joke. Someone gave Altair another shot of tequila, he shot it but bitched about, and then took another shot anyway.

—

Altair left the debrief only slightly irritated. It was a lot less stupid than other debriefs he'd had. This one mainly went over what Altair had done, the cave in, Desmond (who no one knew the name of except him and Alpha and they just liked calling him twelve), and Delta who were starting to wake up. Desmond kept saying he wanted to see Altair. He was being insistent upon it as well and kept bothering the techs about 'when he was going to see Altair again?' He was also being difficult and speaking in some other language to the techs when they asked him questions, except to ask about Altair.

So basically Altair was a mother duck and it was like Desmond had imprinted. Lovely.

He headed up to where they were holding Desmond and the techs looked very glad to see him. He went up to the plastic tent Desmond was in and Desmond jumped off the bed and literally bounced up to the clear wall and jumped up and down in front of it as Altair stood there, looking down at him. "What're you doing?" he asked.

"You're here!" Desmond said gleefully.

"Yes. I am. Why aren't you behaving for the techs?"

"Because they're stooooopid," he said.

Altair rolled his eyes, "You need to do what they say."

"Why?"

"Because."

"Because whyyy?" and Desmond was acting like a five year old and not a ten year old like he was.

"Because the sooner you do the sooner you can get out of there."

"They keep poking me with needles. Or they're trying," and he pushed up the sleeve of his arm and showing off a series of small, angry, red, dots on the inside of his elbow.

Altair rose his brows, "What are you idiots doing?" he asked them.

"Trying to take a blood sample," they said.

"You fucking idiots. He's got genetically reenforced skin. That's standard on all field operatives how do you not have needles to handle that?"

"We've been using them," one of the techs said.

"They didn't want me to be experimented on," Desmond said, still smiling and scratched his neck. "So I have special skin. No needles."

"Can you be cut?" Altair asked, actually interested. His own reenforced skin made normal needles useless but with enough force he could get cut.

"Nope. Not by any knives you have," Desmond said it all very cheerfully.

"Why didn't you tell the techs this?"

"I figured they'd get it," he shrugged. "They're supposed to be smart, right?"

"That's what I thought," he looked at the techs.

"Hey!"

"Is he contaminated?"

"We can't tell. We need a blood sample."

"Or a saliva swab," Altair said, "or a urine sample, or a stool sample. Don't give me that 'we need a blood sample'. Figure out if he's contaminated in the next hour or you're going to have to deal with me. And I just came back from dealing with this shit in the Rockies and haven't had a chance to sleep yet. So better figure it out quick," and it was definitely a threat. The techs jumped to. "And you," he added to Desmond. "Stop being difficult. Making their lives difficult makes my life difficult, which in turn'll make your life difficult. Got it?"

"I dig," and Altair gave him the strangest look. He didn't ask Desmond what that meant and he sort of figured he didn't want to know either.

"Good," he said, in lieu of what to say otherwise. The techs pulled Desmond away and took a saliva swab and a mucus swab and Altair sat in a chair to the side, watching. Once they got their samples the techs left the plastic tent and got out of their crazy biohazard suits and left to run tests.

"Hey, Altair," Desmond was against the wall again.

"Yeah, twelve?"

"This is unnecessary," he said. "I'm not contaminated, or sick, or diseased. I'm immune to most diseases, including the common cold and old world STDs-

"How do you even know what an STD is? You're like… nine."

"I'm eleven," he said seriously. "And I don't catch new world STDs either, or actually I can't get sick in general. I've had chicken pox-

"Well that's archaic-

"And my tonsils out and my appendix too. I have perfect blood pressure and will until I'm fifty or so pretty much no matter what I do. I have a fully formed heart," which was good since sometimes children could be born with a malformed one, organ defects weren't common, but they weren't rare either, since the Rebuilding. It had something to do with the solution they were grown in more than the genes, but even malformed they were usually pretty fixable, and if not they could just grow a new heart or organ from their own stem cells so there was nearly no chance of the organ being rejected. "Though it's a bit bigger than yours. I dunno why, but it is."

"There a reason you're telling me this, kid?"

"Because I know you could make them listen."

"And how do you know that?"

"I'm eleven, not a moron. Alpha-one, sounds like a pretty important designation to me. All the others called you sir, even the techs," Desmond was leaning against the plastic wall now. "I'm fine, and healthy, and not a carrier. I just want to be outside."

"We'll see."

"Altaaaaiir," he whined miserably. "You're supposed to say okay."

"Kid, I have two boys at home. You really think whining at me is going to change my mind?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Well you're wrong. Got it? It won't, now just sit tight like a good boy until the techs come back."

"They won't find anything," Desmond pouted, arms folded. "I'm as clean as a new baby… okay maybe not that clean since babies get sick easy. And I-

"Desmond," Altair said, "Shut up."

Desmond frowned at him, "That's mean."

"I don't know where it got into your head that I'm a nice man kid," Altair told him.

"Cause you are."

He scoffed, "Please."

"You are," he said. "Or you wouldn't have pushed nine out the way. Or you wouldn't have come just because I called."

"I don't know what's in your head kid. But I'm here under orders. The brass says you're my responsibility. So here I am." Desmond beamed at him, "… which you knew would happen," he said and Desmond's grin was pleased. "You're good kid," he admitted.

"I should be. I'm supposed to be here," he said. "And I'm good at reading people. You want to help me. Even though you're being a butt head about it."

"A what head?"

"A butt head."

"Kid where did you learn to talk?"

"Home."

"Yeah well no one says 'butt head'. By the God what does that even mean?" Altair stared at him.

"It means you're a butt head," Desmond said.

"What's a butt head though?"

"That your head, is actually a butt?"

"Is this supposed to be an insult?"

"Yes."

"You're out of date."

"At least I'm not old like you," and Desmond stuck his tongue out at him.

"Very mature."

"I'm eleven."

"Sir?" Altair looked up when one of the techs, now in the room, spoke up.

"Yeah? You done?"

"No, there's actually a call for you from Command."

"From who?"

"Support."

"Ah. There a terminal around here?"

"Yeah, down a floor."

"Thanks," and he got up, "Behave," he added to Desmond who pulled a face at him, Altair shook a stern finger at him before leaving. He went down a floor and after a moment found a room for terminals. Normally you'd just take a call over a phone or comm, but Altair didn't usually do that when he was in a bureau. Easier to just not honestly because over a phone you could get interrupted, or things could be traced.

He picked an empty terminal. A few people were using other the, hooked in, the screens blank white, or flickering to colors at high speed, too fast for the normal eye to really see, unless you were interfacing. He sat down and popped open a compartment and pulled out a series of wires. Program admins back at the fortress had specialized suits to help them interface smoothly and fully integrated. As it was if you had the seventh EV you usually got put into the admins, because the seventh wasn't something a lot of people had. Most of support didn't and virtually no field agents. But Altair had all the EVs, thirteen in total a miracle of genetics they said. That included the seventh which allowed for terminal interfacing.

He didn't have a suit but you didn't need one. The suit helped for full integration, all you really needed was a few wires. He strapped the monitor to his wrist, it would monitor his heart rate during it and kick him out if something happened. A sticker went to either temple and then the last, more like a dome with a flat bottom and a tiny hole in it, went at the nape of his neck.

Altair stared at the white screen after it took him a few seconds for the EV to kick in. He didn't usually use EVs six through nine, because he wasn't support, and because in society they didn't have the devices the Assassins designed to work with these special abilities that made it nearly impossible for them to be hacked because you literally couldn't see the information without the sixth. But it kicked in and he felt a prick on his neck and the white screen changed and became different.

It was said interfacing looked different for everyone. For Altair it was a mostly white room. White and a weird pale but not light blue and filled with a dense fog that he could see through a few feet before it became impossible to penetrate. He didn't know what interfacing looked like for anyone else as when you pulled out you couldn't really recall what it looked like, like having a minor memory wipe. It mattered little.

As fast as he could think it Altair found the 'call' in the bureau's system for him and streaked down the line to the fortress support. He found the ones he wanted nearly instantly and was now in their version of what the interface looked like, which was very grid-like and organized. It reminded him of street roads. He knew they weren't interfacing, since if you had it you were a program admin, or a core programmer if you had all four, if you were in support. This was their terminal though.

"This is alpha-one to support," he 'said'. Sort of saying but his voice was only audible to those with the ninth EV. He pinged support to let them know to turn their ears up. He'd been told his voice sounded very different over interfacing.

"This is support. Took you long enough," it was the cranky male support from his mission.

"You really need to stop flirting with me. I have a partner you know," Altair said.

"Yeah because I am so eager to get into your pants. I bet you have a little dick anyway."

"Will you stop?" asked the calmer support, "Honestly you can worry about who's sucking who's dick later," they said irritably.

"I like your partner better."

"Yeah well he can't hear you so save your flattery."

"What he say?" Altair pinged the other support's monitor before the cranky one could answer. "Ha! At least you aren't beta-one, she's a real piece of work that one."

"She is," and he pinged the monitor with everything he said so the nice support wouldn't be left out of the conversation.

"Now who's wasting time," cranky said.

"Right right," and then a visual of someone's helmet was being brought up.

"Do you know what this is?" cranky asked.

"No. I've never seen anything like it," the walls were black and looked slick, with glowing teal hieroglyph looking shapes on it.

"This is the cam from delta-four," nice support said.

"The one who made it out of the botch job."

"Yes. And it was in the same place you found the other Deltas. It was also the same place you and your Alphas were."

"I don't see what the situation is."

"This is your cam," and another screen came up. "Serenity was able to keep you online even after six and ten were dropped off." Altair's cam feed was very different. The walls were cut stone. Not smooth or black, and there were no hieroglyphs at all.

Altair grabbed delta-four's feed and replayed. "He's hiding behind something," Altair said.

"Yes."

"There was no cover in the tunnel we were in either."

"Yes. So in the few days between the Delta mission and the Alpha one the entire tunnel changed. The walls, cover, and the Deltas were not moved from where you found them."

"Hmm."

"In the dead zone did you see any surfaces like this?" cranky asked.

"I don't know. I was blind."

"What?"

"My helmet died entirely, I lost visual in the dead zone and was just following the kid by touch," he was still looking over delta-four's feed.

"Your visor went opaque?"

"Yeah. And I lost contact with Serenity. I fixed both when I left the dead zone," and then he stopped delta-four's video. "What's…" and he enhanced a part of it. "Have you seen this?" he asked.

"What?"

"This," and he sectioned off the part of the feed and enhanced it further and lightened it and finally, there, in the dark, emerged a figure. Two figures. A tall one, and a little one.

"Woah. How did you see this?" the nice one asked and the feed was copied right in his hands and flicked away to his own terminal.

"I dunno."

"That looks like a human."

"And a kid," Altair said.

"Parent and child?"

"The kid you found," cranky said.

"Looks like him. What's the adult doing?" they were holding something, but the quality wasn't good enough to see what it was. "Hello?" he asked when support was quiet for a while.

"Thank you alpha-one, that will be all," cranky said suddenly.

"Wait? What?"

"That will be all. Return to your duties."

"Hold on-

"We've been ordered by upper brass. Return to your duties," and then suddenly he was locked out of the terminal. Altair wasn't good enough to wriggle his way back in and he just starred at the hexagon made wall with a frown. What in the hell?

There was nothing really for it though. He withdrew to his own terminal and then pulled out and was sitting where he'd started. He also had araging headache. Interfacing was untraceable and untappable so was good for talking to support or important upper brass of the Order. But Altair wasn't cut out for it despite having the four support EVs and using them usually left him with a migraine, like now. He reached up and pulled off the plug on his neck and tugged the needle out, tossing it into the bin next to the terminal, a new one would be put in once the wires were put back. He tugged off the tags and the heart monitor and the terminal switched off as he put them back. Altair took a step back and then turned around, it was offically out of his hands.


	4. Come Home

Even with quick elevators it still took time to travel nearly twenty floors. And that was when you could get one of the fortress inclusive elevators, which wasn't common, but not uncommon either. Rauf had ridden the all fortress service elevators a few times in his life, and he wasn't some young billy goat. But he also moved around within the same three levels most of his life and had no need to use them. So that meant he had to catch an elevator at his area take it down to the novice training halls, get off, and then get on another one. Normally this worked out very well as Rauf usually didn't go lower than floor twenty-two. Or at least when he didn't want to get down to the Nursery and then he didn't go nearly as often as Altair. He was just busy, it happened when you were an instructor. He was always working.

Neither Altair nor Sef begrudged him that though. It wasn't like he was a field operative and when he was home he could just laze about willy nilly like Altair did between his missions. No, not any more. Now he had work every day and even with his level of patience he sometimes just wanted to throw his students down a flight of stairs.

He waited for another of the tri-level elevators to become available. To be honest the elevator system still confused Rauf, and he'd grown up with it. It still was sort of amazing though that there were eleven elevators on each floor, and only seven serviced the entire fortress, the others only went between specific floors. He'd gotten on the wrong one more than once and had been annoyed to find himself going to an entire different level instead of just another floor. Altair claimed to have never gotten them mixed up. Rauf knew that was a bald faced lie though.

The elevator dinged and Rauf went in. He pressed one of the six buttons on the side, that went to the different levels in the fortress, from there you had to get off this elevator and either catch an all service elevator, or one that serviced that level. As he said, it was confusing. Rauf should have just walked.

A moment later though the doors were opening with a gentle ding to the Nursery. Rauf left the elevator and it was immediately being called to another level. He signed in at the front where a nice nurse smiled at him with golden eyes, no doubt checking him out with her Eagle Eyes. He didn't know how support worked but he didn't want to either. So he just smiled back and entered the children's area.

The Nursery was two parts. One was the fraternal area where the AWCs and the babies were cared for until they were about two years old. And then there was the larger part of the nursery, for toddlers and small children until they were eight when they were sent up two levels to the novice halls where they started their training. The Nursery constantly had a population of one-hundred and sixty children to two-hundred children, and most of the fortress knew all their children by name, because children were rare and special.

Rauf entered the nursery and looked around. The front area was a big play room filled with toys and stuffed animals and covered in a soft rug. One part of the floor was touch sensitive and he saw children drawing on it. Others were playing with the infinite numbers of toys. It was here, really, where the Order's unity started. No child was without a friend or play mate as they were all one.

Many of them were darker skinned as well after the fall of the Near East fortress that had actually put Rauf's own parents here. The fortress was still trying to reach an equilibrium in skin tone, as eventually it all evened out, they were all family and the color of one's skin was inconsequential, or the build of their bodies, or their height.

Society liked to think they lived in a utopia. There were only small clusters of war, the plague had wiped out most people who had been poor and starving (unfortunate but true). They'd been the fodder for their blitzing wars after the Collapse where they'd all tried to kill each other thinking another country had sabotaged them. Those were all gone now and there was very little to fight over, though Colorado was another story in itself and he wasn't even going to think of Utah. He still had nightmares about that. Altair had told him horror stories, and he'd watched feeds from helmet cams after the missions had been completed. It was terrible and terrifying.

But though society like to think itself a utopia it was not. There was still strife and people were still shunned and cast aside based on color, creed, sex, sexual preference, and every manner of thing, just like before the Collapse. The Order was a utopia. No one wanted for anything and here no one was left aside, no one was different because they were all different, and different was good. Different meant an interesting combination of genes that would show itself in interesting ways as the child grew older. To be different in the Order was to excel.

Rauf glanced over the children but decided the one he wanted wasn't here. So he moved towards the sleeping rooms filled with bunk beds, all the sheets cheerful and different, the walls a calming yellow color. The rooms were labeled on the door frames but Rauf knew where he was going.

He opened one of the doors and looked in. He smiled. "You better not be shrinking your lessons," he said as a way to announce himself.

The two boys laying on their bellies on the floor, playing on the touch sensitive floor, some sort of game, looked up sharply. "Baba!" Sef cried and leapt right to his feet, ran over to him and jumped on him. In five seconds he had the little boy clinging to him, legs wrapped around his waist. "Baba baba baba baba baba baba-

"Yes Sef, I'm here. Calm down," Rauf laughed and pried his son off him to hold him properly. He was getting big and Rauf wasn't getting any taller. He'd inherited Altair's height it seemed. All the better, being short was no fun, in the Order or society. It made reaching things difficult and having to use a chair to reach a shelf was always a bit embarrassing. "And you," he look at Darim sternly.

"Classes are over Rauf," he chirped from where he was laying. "I promise I'm not skipping," he added.

"Do I believe you?" he knew that the different novice levels stopped lessons at different times during the day. Rauf only knew the older novice times though since he taught only ninth or tenth level. Any less and it was a waste of his skill.

"I promise," Darim said and gave him the same look Altair did when he was lying.

"Get to class," Rauf said and pointed out the door. With a groan Darim picked himself up off the floor and slouched out of the room. "Don't make me tell your father," he added.

"He skipped all the time though," Darim pouted.

"He was also a prodigy," Rauf reminded him. "Are you?" Darim said nothing, "Go," and he shooed Darim away.

"Is dad coming home soon?" Darim asked. "He is coming home right?" he added.

"He's fine. He'll be coming home when he comes home. Now go you have class," Rauf said sternly.

"Yes Rauf," Darim sighed a long sigh and left the bedroom.

"You have such a disobedient brother Sef," Rauf told his son, his other hand not helping to hold him up on his hip. "Don't be like him."

"I won't baba," Sef promised. "I'll be like you instead."

Rauf chuckled, "Yes. A very good idea," he agreed.

"And baba, baba, look, look," he tugged on Rauf's shirt urgently as Rauf left the room.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I can doooo— this!" Sef cried and his eyes turned gold. Rauf stopped in his tracks.

"Oh my," Rauf said. It was rare, very rare, for children to start showing EVs until they hit puberty. There were exceptions of course, Altair had been. A few others had been as well. Sef was only six. He didn't know how early Altair had been able to do it, but he'd had several by the time most boys were getting their first EV. "What do I look like?" he asked.

"You're all funny a blue colored," Sef giggled.

"Ah," Rauf nodded, of course, Classic. "Don't show anyone but me and your daddy this Sef," he said.

"Why?"

"Just don't. Okay? Now put it away."

"Ooookay," Sef sighed. "But isn't that neat?! I can do it like you and daddy and Darim do," he said excitedly.

Rauf chuckled, "Yes. It is very neat," he said as they went out to the main room. The Eagle Vision was the one thing that made them less than a utopia. Children who had it early were sent into training early, were trained harder, were expected more of. Most parents didn't want that for their children since so much was already expected of them. Even Altair had kept his hidden until other boys had started to show their first EV. Not to mention it was one of the few things that separated Assassins, how many EVs you had. Adults knew not to be envious, but Rauf knew as a teenager that many kids in his class were jealous of him. He had ten EVs, which was quite a few, the most most field operatives had as the other three were nearly strictly support based and he had no use for them, even though he'd been tested for them just like all the others. He did not want that for Sef, and neither would Altair. So they'd be kept a secret for now.

"Baba," Sef said as they walked around the back of the main nurse desk.

"Yes, Sef?" he asked, entering the paternal care area. He passed by the large wall window of sleeping babies from last year's season, sleeping in color coordinated basinets of red and blue. He saw one that held two babies; twins. A near impossible thing in the fortress, and even in society, though you could request twins or triplets at a Child Bank. There was no such thing in the Order. One child per AWC, at least usually. Obviously they couldn't control everything and sometimes twins happened.

"Am I really going to be a big brother?"

Rauf chuckled, "Yes Sef."

"Like Darim?"

"Yes Sef," he smiled fondly at his boy.

"When?"

"In a few months."

Sef frowned deeply at him, "I wanna be a big brother now," he said.

Rauf laughed, "I'm sorry Sef but your little sibling has to grow first before you can see them. See," he said as they entered the AWC room. It had been two months since the start of the season though not many people were down here. Altair was down here a lot Rauf knew that. He wasn't quite sure why but he seemed to both seek comfort here and offer it to the unborn here. During the year Sef had been down here Altair had been down here constantly, eventually dragging Rauf down as well, though he himself had had no interest in having children before Altair. Now he had Sef and didn't know what he'd do if anything happened to their son.

"My little brother's in there?" Sef pointed.

"Or sister," Rauf said, not until late in the season would they know what gender it was though they be able to tell soon. Gender didn't matter though, Assassins were simply happy to have children. Most just had one in their life, like Rauf would probably only ever have Sef, and he was okay with that. Altair had three children, which was pretty much unheard of. Only a few other people in the fortress had more than two, including the Mentor's brother, Giovanni, who had four. Four children. Everyone knew it was both favoritism and the fact that all the man's children were exceptional. Except the latest one who was small and sickly. No more children for Giovanni.

"What's their name?" Sef asked.

"I don't know," Rauf said. "Your daddy and the one he was joined with haven't decided yet," it would be interesting to see what sort of name Altair and Malik could agree upon to be quite honest, since they agreed on nothing.

"Oh. Which one?" Sef asked, looking at the line of AWCs.

Rauf walked up to the line of tubes. Altair had shown him which one, but it had been a bit ago, he didn't remember. But they were labeled with the two parents so it wasn't difficult to find. "This one," Rauf said, stopping in front of one and hefted his son a bit. Children were heavy and Rauf wasn't getting any younger or taller, soon he wouldn't be able to pick Sef up. As it was the boy was half his height.

Sef reached out and pressed his hand to the glass. "Hello baby," Sef said. "I'm Sef, your big brother," and Rauf smiled as Sef talked to the AWC like it could talk back. It was cute.

Another couple entered, they stood in front of theirs few a few moments, spoke briefly and then one of the woman left in a huge huff. The other woman ran after her, Rauf watched with half interest. By this point he'd just transferred Sef to his shoulders because it was easier to hold him like that as he had strong shoulders. Sef was still talking. Rauf didn't know where he got his chattering from since Altair was a quiet man, and Rauf, while friendly, didn't talk idly like Sef could.

The door opened again and Rauf looked, only with slight interest and his brows went up. It was Malik. Rauf would honestly recognize Malik from anywhere, just because he'd never heard so much hate for a man as he did last month when Altair had been told of his forced joining. Rauf, truthfully, didn't know much about Malik, as he hadn't Altair until their joining, as the man was three years younger than him and worked in a totally different part of the fortress. All he knew about Malik was what Altair told him and he knew everything that came out of Altair's mouth about Malik was stained with dislike, so he took very little of it seriously.

Malik walked the AWCs like he'd never been there before, reading the plaques, looking for his, though Rauf was standing in front of it. In fact, he didn't even read Rauf's, assuming it was his and thus not his. Rauf snorted to himself when Malik walked around him to read the rest of the line and then looked very confused as to why he couldn't find his name.

"You're looking for this one," Rauf said, pointing at the AWC his son was still talking to.

"Excuse me?" Malik asked, looking at him.

"You're Malik right?"

"…Yes," he said as if not quite sure of it himself.

"This one is yours," Rauf said. "Sef, shush," he added to his son.

"But baba, I was just getting to the good bit," Sef whined. He honestly didn't know what Sef had been talking about. Probably some dream he had.

"Later," he tutted as Malik came towards him. Rauf stepped away from the AWC as Sef lay on his head, arms hanging on either side of his face.

Malik stood in front of his AWC and then turned to him, "What are you doing in front of my AWC?" he asked, slightly accusing, as if Rauf could damage it. Ha! As if.

"I'm Rauf," he said, there was no recognition. Not a surprise, they had different jobs, a different circle of friends, really the only thing they had in common was they'd been joined with Altair and both resonated well with him.

"Who? And how do you know me?" Malik asked, dark brows forming a single line over his eyes.

Rauf smiled a little, one that showed through his beard. "I'm an instructor," he said, "and Altair's partner."

Malik's face turned to dislike instantly, "I see," Malik said in contempt.

"No, apparently not," Rauf said, actually insulted he was being judged solely for who he shared a bed with. "I was hoping to think better of you. All Altair tells me is that you're a awful human being," he said it without malice, but clearly so Malik would get what he was getting at. "Is he right?"

Malik blinked at him, clearly not having expected such a rebuke. Then he seemed to shift, an internal perception of Rauf changing so he wasn't just 'the man Altair slept with' and was now 'the man who puts up with Altair'. "No," Malik said. "Forgive me, it's been a very stressful week," he sighed a little.

"Yes. Delta going down," Rauf agreed solemnly.

"More dealing with Alpha," Malik sighed, "I'm in support," he elaborated.

"Ah-" oh, well. "You led Alpha?"

"Yes. And their commander—" he pantomimed strangling someone, "if I ever find out who he really is I'm going to actually throttle him."

"I see," Rauf said slowly. Funny that. The man Malik wanted to hurt was the man he was joined with. Somehow he wasn't surprised in the slightest. They didn't even know the other had been on the other end of their comm and had been abrasive to one another. Though to be fair Altair was Alpha-one and support could be very annoying. "He is Alpha-one," he reminded Malik.

Malik snorted, unimpressed, "I could have been in Alpha if I hadn't opened the proper EVs," he said.

"Really?" he didn't know that.

"Yeah. Or, I could have tried out for Alpha," Malik said, "Charlie would have suited me better."

"Well Charlie is nothing to scoff at," Rauf said, not when most field agents were slotted into Echo and below. "But you're in support," he said, "just as prestigious," especially for a man. Most support and tech were women, they tended to unlock those EVs and men didn't. They were harder to do so for both genders, no one was quite sure why, it was the general consensus that it was because women had been sight than men did and were less likely to be color blind or have distorted vision.

"You'd be surprised how boring," Malik said.

"I don't believe that," Rauf scoffed.

"A lot of it is just sitting around waiting for who you're leading to enter the hot zone," Malik said.

"Ah," Rauf nodded. Then with a grunt Rauf pulled Sef off his shoulders, his boy was too heavy.

"Is he yours?" Malik asked, as sometimes partners helped with their partner's child even if they had none of their own.

"He is," Rauf said and gently ran his hand through Sef's hair.

"With Altair?" and there was a weird edge to Malik's voice.

"Yes," Rauf said as if he was wondering why Malik would ask such a stupid question. "His name is Sef. Sef, say hello."

"Hello," and Sef waved at Malik in the bright manner only children could. Malik smiled slightly at the little boy. "Do you know my daddy?"

"Yes," Malik said.

"He's great, isn't he?"

Malik's face was interesting. Clearly he wasn't that much of an awful person to tell a child no their father was actually an awful person. "So some would have us believe," Malik said. Rauf laughed.

"Excuse us," Rauf said. "I didn't mean to interrupt your time here," because really, he had. Normally people didn't visit AWCs that weren't theirs. But he'd promised Altair he'd come visit it while he was on his mission, so he had.

"No, it's fine, really," Malik said. "Are you doing anything?"

"Just visiting my son," Rauf said ruffling Sef's hair affectionately, "and coming here like Altair asked."

"He asked?"

"Yes. If he couldn't come he asked me to. He said you didn't come here very often."

"Oh."

"Why? Was there something you needed?"

"Dinner's soon. Care to join me?"

"You know I am with someone," and they both had a laugh at that.

"I can clearly see you're the much better half of Sef's parentage," Malik said. "And you put up with Altair, surely you have some hints on how to not want to punch him in the face on sight."

"He does tend to do that doesn't he?" Rauf agreed, though had never wanted to do it himself. He knew plenty of others, especially in society, who would take one look at Altair and it could start a fight. There was something dangerous about Altair to those people that just triggered the flight or fight response in humans. "Sure," he said. "Just let me take Sef back. "Floor twenty-nine?"

"Thirty," Malik said.

Rauf gave him a little of a look, "Are you sure you're not trying to get into my pants?" he asked, since floor twenty-nine was much more casual, thirty was not.

Malik rolled his eyes, "I'm having dinner with a couple, don't think so much," he said.

"Ah. Very well then. I'll meet you up there. Come on Sef."

"Bye bye," Sef said, waving as Rauf gently pulled him away. Malik waved and managed to smile a little at the boy. Then they left Malik in the AWC room.

—

Altair sat, watching Desmond eat. He was eleven years old but ate like a sixteen year old. It was like he had a bottomless stomach, or two hollow legs that the food just fell into. Altair had eaten already. Munahid was sitting next to him, trying not to look on in actual horror. Munahid had no children though, he didn't understand that not only could they put away the food but they didn't do so neatly.

Desmond stopped as he ate and looked at Munahid then at Altair. "Why's he looking at me like that?"

"Because you eat like you've never seen food in your life," Altair said bluntly. "Honestly where are you good eating habits?"

"Uh… sorry?" Desmond asked. "There are good eating habits?"

Altair rolled his eyes, "What, were you raised in a cage or something?"

"Yes, actually," and both Altair and Munahid stared at him. "It was a very nice cage though," and then he went back to eating. "None of the food there looked like this or tasted like this."

"Wait, back track. You were locked up?" Munahid asked.

"I said it was a cage, I didn't say I was locked up," Desmond said, mouth full.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Altair said automatically. Sef still talked with his mouth full and he'd been to the Nursery enough times during meals to have just developed the habit. But then Sef was seemingly always talking. Darim had never had that problem, but then he was much more Altair than his brother. Though Sef wasn't his baba either. He didn't know where Sef had come from and he was half sure that they'd labeled the wrong AWC during that season. Not that it mattered, he still loved Sef.

"But you're talking to me. How am I supposed to eat and-

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Altair cut him off. Munahid chuckled. Desmond sulked and finished chewing. "Now, cage, explain," he ordered.

"Why?"

"Because you were kept in a cage."

"Not a little one," Desmond said. "It was bigger than the bureau."

"That's not a cage," Munahid said.

"It was if you couldn't leave," Desmond said and took another bite of his noodles.

"Semantics," Altair said. "So you going to tell us anything else? Like where you came from?"

"No," Desmond said around his noodles. "It's a secret."

"Is he always like this?" Munahid asked.

"Yes," Altair groaned and rubbed his head. It hadn't even been a week, but Altair had learned nothing real from Desmond. The kid was cryptic and he knew how to talk, and tell Altair something and not actually tell Altair anything.

"He's annoying," Munahid said.

"You're telling me!" Altair cried. Desmond just giggled. "Uhg," he was so done with Desmond at this point.

Behind them the door opened. The two men turned and looked, "Alpha-one?" they asked carefully.

Altair and Munahid traded looks, "That's me," Altair said.

"You're being called by the bureau leader."

"For what?"

"Work."

"Great," Altair sighed. "Okay. Keep an eye on him Munahid."

"What else am I supposed to do?"

"Keep him out of trouble and don't let him talk you into anything. Damn kid could convince a wall to suddenly sprout a door," Desmond smirked at that. Altair sent him a look and he followed the man who'd gotten him.

"They're downstairs," he said.

"Right," he nodded. Unlike the fortress bureaus were built top to bottom and not bottom to top so the bureau leader was in the bottom basement. So Altair got in the elevator and went down, the man with him as you needed a key card to access the basements from the elevator or the stairs.

The elevator opened and Altair walked down to the bureau leader's office. He knocked and was let in. "Sir, you wanted to see me?" he asked.

"Hello one," they said and motioned for him to sit. He did. "We have a mission for you."

"Okay."

"It's… rather dangerous."

Altair was silent for a moment, "You know I'm Alpha-one right? I don't get missions unless they are 'actually dangerous', sir," and the bureau leader seemed amused by that. "What am I doing?"

"We're sending you to Utah-

"What?" he interrupted. "Sir, Utah's a no fly zone. We pulled out of there years ago."

"Yes, we did," he agreed. "But we need to know what's going on in the interior. You're Alpha-one-

"Charlie is much better suited for espionage than I am, sir," Altair couldn't help it. He really didn't want to go to Utah. It was dangerous there. It was a religious military state and the mormons didn't like people who weren't mormons. Altair was an atheist. They'd kill him if they ever knew.

"This isn't espionage one. This is a tracking mission."

Altair blinked, "What?"

He brought up a holographic map of the capital of Utah; Salt Lake City. "We're getting a transmission from just outside the city. Small, barely there, but on our frequency," which was saying something. Tracking beacons were at a frequency normal people and machines couldn't detect. You could only see the signal through the sixth EV, and that was only if you had a machine that could pick up such transmissions. "We don't know who or what it is. But it's clearly something we made. Your mission is to get in there, find it, and then get out."

"What do I do with what I find?" Altair asked.

"We'll decide that when you find it," the bureau leader said.

"How long as it been active?"

"Two days. I sent it back to the fortress. They know you're here. You're on it."

He frowned, "If I'm going into Utah I refuse to go alone," he said. Normally Altair worked best alone, or with his unit.

"You can't bring all of Alpha with you."

"Then one or two. I need someone to watch my back against those mormons," he said.

The bureau leader's mouth became thin a moment. "Fine. Who?"

"Eleven, and nine," he said. "Nine speaks Utarian and if something goes sideways eleven can patch us up."

"Fine. I'll authorize this," he nodded. "You're going in with minimal armaments. No suits, no helmets. All we'll have on you in a ear piece."

"Okay," Altair said, but he didn't like it. He hated going into the field unarmored. It made him nervous.

"You leave in three hours. Tell your men and get ready to go."

"Sir."

"You're dismissed one," he said. Altair stood, saluted, and then left the office.

—

Finding nine was easy, Haytham hung around three- Christopher- and five- Ehan- mostly. They were in the upper recreational floors playing pool. Ehan was smoking and Chris was helping Haytham actually not suck at pool.

"Hey Altair," Ehan said around his cigarette. In the past cigarettes had been extremely dangerous and toxic. Since the Collapse new laws had been put in place to make sure that nearly everything in cigarettes was both organic and non addictive. They couldn't have their tiny special population killing itself on cigarettes. They came in and out of style and right now were out, sales the lowest they'd been in a century. Ehan was one of the only people Altair knew who smoked.

"Nine," he said and Haytham elbowed Chris in the gut, and not just because it looked like Chris might have grabbed his ass. Chris played grab ass with everyone though. He straightened as Chris bent over the pool table.

"Yes, sir?" Haytham said, pool cue in a ready position in his hand like a spear.

"We're going to Utah," he said.

Haytham paled, "We are?"

"Yes."

"The God be damned," Haytham swore.

"Where's eleven?" Altair continued.

"Where do you think?" Chris asked, having gotten his wind back. Altair rolled his eyes. "Those two are in their twenties right? Are we really sure they aren't actually like… fourteen or something."

"You're just bitter because the girls think you're a creep," Haytham rolled his eyes at Chris.

"Enough," Altair said flatly. "We have three. Nine, get your gear together. We're going in naked."

"Shit," Haytham growled.

"I know. I don't like it either. A bird is going to fly us to the border, we're driving to Salt Lake."

"Damnit damnit," Haytham wasn't happy.

"I'll brief you both on the trip. Now get your shit together," and then he left the three there.

—

Feeling like the dad he was Altair banged on the door. "Oi, you two," he called through the door. He was met by dead silence, which was funny since not a second ago there had been noise. "Seven get off him I need eleven," he called again.

"How important is this?" Diyari called.

"Important enough that if you aren't out here in the next ten seconds with underwear on I am coming in there," Altair threatened.

Not even ten seconds passed and Diyari slid out of the room. If the light sheen of sweat on his skin didn't give away what he'd just been doing the way his hair was all tangled most certainly did. "Yes, sir?" Diyari asked, trying to not look incredibly embarrassed about standing in front of his commanding officer in briefs.

Altair didn't even notice. "You, me, and nine are going to Utah."

"What?" Diyari's eyes got huge.

"Yeah. I know. I don't like it either. We leave in three hours. I'll brief you and nine on the way to the drop off. So finish up, pack your gear and get ready to go."

Diyari took a deep breath, "I see."

"Also, we're going nude."

"Fuck," Diyari looked skyward miserably.

"Yeah. I know. That's what I thought. But tough shit, we're Alpha and need to deal with it."

"Okay. So the roof in three hours?"

"You got it."

Diyari nodded, "How much gear should I bring?"

"Some sort of kit. I don't know what the situation in Utah will be like. Just be prepared for anything," he saw Diyari mentally cataloguing everything he had and would need for this mission.

"Okay. I can do that. Uh… see you in three hours."

"Make sure you can walk," Altair pointed at him sternly.

"Shut up," Diyari said, but his face was bright red. Then he opened the door and went back inside. Altair was leaving as he heard Jari say through the door, 'you've got to be kidding me!'

—

He'd put this off to the end. Honestly the mission to the Rockies hadn't been dangerous. Utah was dangerous though. He sat at a terminal and after a moment hooked himself in. The terminal flickered and he sank into it.

A moment later he was where he needed to be. It was late at the fortress, as where they were was an hour behind. He made sure to buzz the terminal a lot, making noise. Several moments passed and Altair frowned. What if he wasn't in? Then the terminal was properly switched on. This wasn't like the terminals support used, these were personal terminals, like computers society used, though on its own network, independent of society. "Hello?" asked the tired voice.

Altair tweaked the inside of the terminal, clearly he'd woken Rauf up, and now felt bad for that. "Hey," he said so his voice transmitted over the speakers and a second later he had the cameras turned on. So now he could see Rauf's face and Rauf could see his visual.

"Altair? You know what time it is right?" and Rauf rubbed his eyes.

"I know, sorry. I was putting the call off. I didn't mean to wake you," he said. Rauf yawned, he had one of their blankets over his shoulders and tugged it closer around him.

"What is it?"

Altair hesitated, "I…"

"Altair?" Rauf asked, becoming a bit more awake. "What's wrong?"

"I'm going on a mission, to Utah-

"No," Rauf cut him off.

"What?"

"No. You aren't going to Utah," he said like a child about to throw a tantrum.

Altair just chuckled, "I don't want to, but I am."

"No," Rauf just said again.

"Nine and eleven are coming with me," he assured Rauf.

"It's still dangerous," Rauf said in a small voice.

"I know. But they'll watch my back."

"And you theirs, right?"

"Right," Altair nodded.

There was a long silence, "This call better not be what I think it is," Rauf said.

"It is," Altair said.

Rauf looked away, "I don't want to hear it."

"You don't want to hear the last thing I might say to you?" Altair asked. Because it was Utah. Even before the borders had closed Utah was a place a lot of people had died. Even for someone like Altair a mission to Utah was dangerous.

Rauf looked at him sadly, "I want to pretend that you're not going," he said, "and that really that last time you talked to me was before you left for the Rockies."

Altair smiled, "Yeah, that was nice," he agreed. There were really few things someone could like more than sex before a mission. He didn't doubt Diyari had gotten all of his gear together as quickly as possible before going back to bed. "You check on my baby?" he asked.

"Yes," Rauf nodded. "I took Sef. He's really excited about being a big brother."

Altair smiled, "That's good."

"Also your son was skipping lessons again," and Altair knew he meant Darim. Sef was their son, Darim was Altair's.

Altair groaned, "Again? I am going to have a word with him when I get back."

"You better," Rauf told him firmly, more to the point that Altair better be back.

"I will. He can't be skipping his lessons."

"No he can't," Rauf agreed. "Also, Sef unlocked Classic."

"He did?"

"Yeah."

"When?"

"He showed me today when I went down to the Nursery."

"Just Classic?"

"As far as I know."

"He's six, right?"

"Yes Altair," Rauf rolled his eyes, Rauf knew Altair knew how old their son was.

"I was five."

"What?" his confusion was plain on his face.

"I unlocked Classic when I was five. Zoom when I was seven."

"Well, maybe he is your son then. Sometimes I wonder since he's so much better at talking to people than you," Rauf teased. Altair smiled lightly. "How long is this mission supposed to take?"

"Unclear. I'm in Marcusville, we're driving from the border to Salt Lake."

"So a few days?"

"Yeah. That's the hope," Altair nodded.

"Be home soon," Rauf said. "The boys miss you."

"Do you miss me too?"

"I'm not going to answer that," Rauf said hotly. Altair laughed a little. Of course Rauf missed him. "Just come home. I don't care what you have to do. You come home, got it?"

"Yes, sir," and he saluted Rauf.

"That's right one," Rauf said with a slight smile.

"Alpha always does as ordered," Altair promised. He brought up a clock. "I need to go. Heli's coming in a few minutes and I need to be up there with my men."

"Okay," Rauf said quietly.

"Hey," Altair said, "I'll be home soon," he promised.

"If you aren't I'm going to let Malik at you."

"Uhg, please don't… wait, Malik?"

"I met him today too. He's a lot nicer than you make him out to be," Altair just growled. "I also think he was hitting on me a bit."

"I'm going to murder him," Altair threatened.

Rauf laughed a little, "Easy there. I thought you had a mission?"

"I'm considering canceling it now to make sure Malik backs the fuck off," Altair wasn't happy. God damn that guy. If Malik was flirting with Rauf it was only to get at Altair because if it was in any way related to him he did it out of spite. Not to mention he and Rauf had been together for almost seven years. He wasn't going to let Malik just show up and be an asshole about the whole thing.

"Incentive you make sure you get home?"

"Like I needed another reason," Altair grumbled.

"I'll be waiting," Rauf promised.

Altair took a deep breath, he needed to not stress about what Malik was doing. He wasn't going to magically convince Rauf to leave him after all. "Okay," Altair nodded. "Tell the boys I'll be home soon. I love you."

Rauf always smiled when he said that, just like he did now. "I love you too," he said.

"Go back to bed," Altair said. "I'm sorry I woke you."

"You've woken me for a lot less," Rauf said idly.

"Hey!" Rauf just laughed.

"Goodnight," Rauf said.

"Goodnight," Altair mimicked. Rauf leaned forward and kissed the screen. "See you in a few days." Rauf said nothing, just smiled and turned off his terminal.

Altair slid back into his own skin. He disconnected from the terminal and slid the ear piece in place. "Alpha-one-

"I swear to the God support," Altair snarled. "I am so not in the mood right now."

"Get your ass up to the roof before you make everyone late again."

"Support," nine chimed in.

"Yes nine?" asked the nice support. Why did they have to have these same two supports.

"Shut the fuck up," Haytham wasn't happy. Both he and Diyari knew what Altair had been doing. Honestly he didn't doubt if Jari was on the roof with them.

"Excuse me?" cranky asked, scandalized and shocked. Field agents didn't speak to support like that.

"I said shut the fuck up you stupid desk jockey. We're about to be sent into hostile territory and one was just saying goodbye to his partner. So kindly fuck off. He's not late, because one is never late as he's the leader and nothing happens until he's here. Got it?"

"Not to mention we don't usually have you two as support," Diyari chimed in. "I don't think you understand how we work. And it isn't on your shitty time table. So lay off, we know what we're doing."

There was silence from support. "Thanks," Altair told his men, meaning it.

"He was starting to piss me off something fierce," Haytham growled. "Needs to get that stick out of his ass. Poor bastard probably also needs to get laid since no one who has regular sex is that fucking annoying all the time."

"Amen," Diyari said.

"You're my prime example," Haytham told Diyari. Diyari just laughed.

"Almost there. You guys boarded?"

"Yes, sir. Waiting for you."

"Jari leave?"

"No," Diyari said.

"Tell him to leave," Altair said. "Last thing I want is the last time he sees you being as you leave in a heli."

"Don't say shit like that," Haytham said.

"It's a very real possibility that we could all die," Altair told them both. "You're both just kids, so listen to an old man and tell him to leave."

There was radio silence, "He's gone," Haytham said as Altair got out of the elevator.

"Good," and he actually passed Jari as he went onto the roof. Seven didn't even look at him. He got onto the roof and picked his bag of gear up from the concrete and went to the heli with the open back. Altair climbed in and put his bag away before going up to the pilot. "Hello," he said.

"Alpha-one," they said professionally, so unlike Hellhound.

"What's our call sign?"

"Blue Jay," he said, "I'm Egg, this is Nest," he pointed at his male navigator.

"Close us up and get us out of here then Egg," Altair said.

"Roger that."

"If we need evac do we call you?"

"Negative. Tell support, they'll decide if evacs will be sent."

Altair cursed silently, "Right. Well, lets get a move on then," and he patted Egg's helmet and then went back and sat across from his men. He buckled in.

"One," eleven said.

"Yes, eleven?"

"You'll get us out of there right?"

Altair looked at them both, "Like every mission, the goal is to come home," and then the heli lifted off. "So I'll try my damnedest to make sure we do."

"That's all I ask," Diyari said. He looked like he had something else to say.

"Out with it eleven," he said sternly.

Diyari swallowed, "Well, I… really want to get home, sir."

"We all do-

"I have a baby this season, sir."

They both stared at Diyari. "You do?" Haytham asked, "Since when?"

"We petitioned for one," Diyari said.

Altair rubbed his face. "Eleven, why didn't you tell me? I would have let you stay if I knew you'd been joined this season."

"We didn't want to make a big deal out of it," Diyari said with a frown. "And I know you have a baby this season too, sir. Why should I get to stay and you don't?"

"Because I've gotten to watch my first child grow up is why," Altair did his best not to be angry. He was, a little bit. Not at Diyari, more at himself, for not knowing.

"We'll come home though," Haytham said. "We'll come home and I'm going to tell everyone."

"That's another reason we didn't say," Diyari sighed and gave Haytham a look.

"We'll get home," Altair said firmly.

"I know," Diyari nodded. "I know you'll get us home, sir."

"The God willing," Altair said.

"He seems to like you though," Haytham put in. "You get out of more close calls than anyone. If anyone'll get us out of Utah, it's you, one."

"Thanks," Altair nodded. "Now, speaking of, you need to be briefed." They nodded. Altair pulled a, small, thin tablet from his bag of gear. "This is what we need to do."


	5. Sweat, Tears, or the Sea

Salt Lake City was one the single largest city in the entire country. Back before the Collapse it had mainly nestled around the great Salt Lake, but since then it had expanded and surrounded not only most of the Lake but also encompassed a good portion of Utah Lake to the south. The great salt flats were still there in the west, and the salt deposits on the lake itself, all situated in a valley in the lee of some of the Rockies.

Altair watched from out the window passionlessly as they drove on the freeway towards Salt Lake City. He could see the rising spires of the city growing nearer and the great Mormon Temple, one of the largest buildings on the continent, and one of the biggest churches in the entire world, looming over the entire city like a crouching tiger. When Utah became it's own soverign nation and declared Mormonism the major religion and all non Mormons had to leave or convert, they'd built upon the original temple, making it larger, more amazing. It looked like one of the old European cathedrals, though so many of them were destroyed now after the decades of war the human race sustained after the plague became a very real thing.

Haytham was driving, he spoke Utarian, which was what the Mormons spoke. In five hundred years they'd sectioned off from the original English language that most of the Conglomerate spoke and it was mixed with Latin and some words that had just evolved that way. Now it sounded nothing like English and was actually a pidgin language, like Creole. Altair had never bothered to learn Utarian, but Haytham did. Good too or they'd be shit out of luck as Mormons did't speak English, except as a second language.

"Are we there yet?" Diyari groaned from the backseat.

"We'll get there when we get there," Altair grunted.

"I hate cars," Diyari pouted and shoved himself into the window.

"You could walk," Haytham said.

"Shut up nine," Diyari grumbled.

"Both of you shut up," Altair said irritably. He hated cars too. They were so slow compared to their normal long range transport, which were the helis. Originally Chinese the Assassins had taken the designs and after five hundred years, after most countries didn't even bother with rotary machines- it was all about jets- the Order had made something truly lethal. Silent, deadly, fast, had cargo space for more than twenty people, and bristled with weapons. It was a jet's worst nightmare. The Order used their helis mainly for transport and extraction from hostile situations. In comparison cars were sluggish and took too long to get anywhere. A heli could have gotten them into the Utah interior in an hour after crossing the border, instead of four hours from the border.

The car fell silent. The city grew closer, coming out of the fog like a great porcupine, the temple blocking some of the buildings from view. They stopped at a toll. Altair watched the Mormon from the passenger seat as Haytham traded money for change and then they were underway again.

"Can I just say again; I don't like this," Diyari said from the back.

"None of us like it," Altair said, leaning back in his seat, hand near his mouth.

"It'd be different if we had like… something here."

"Tell it to the witch trials," Altair said passionlessly. "Any one of us would get killed here just for being here. They don't even let same sexes join in this country," he looked back at Diyari. "And you're a Muslim," he added.

"At least I'm not an atheist," Diyari said right back.

Altair snorted and looked back front. "We all need to watch what we say here," he said. "Might just be better if while here we don't say a lot of anything. Bad enough only nine speaks Utarian."

"So where's the beacon?" Haytham asked, changing the topic.

"Inside the city."

"Yeah, but where?"

"Support'll lead us in. Don't worry about it," but Altair frowned deeply. The beacon had changed locations during the night. They'd only been alerted to it once they'd landed. They'd told Altair the new location, but not nine or eleven. Altair just had an awful feeling all over about it.

"Okay," and they entered Salt Lake City's traffic properly, taking an exit to another freeway to get into the older part of the city faster. The cars here were new, shining and looked more advanced than the ones they saw as 'new' on the outside. Utah had become a huge car manufacturing mecca a hundred years ago and produced advanced, and super clean, cars. Since the ban on Utah trade by the Conglomerate two years ago the other car companies on the continent had had to step up and fill the void, but the weren't as good as Mormon made cars. Their own car was a bit older, a decade old model from Colorado which didn't even have a car manufacturer, no one would look twice at them. Which was the point of course.

As the entered the city their ear pieces clicked, "Alpha?" support said, the cranky one, who wasn't so cranky now after nine and eleven had verbally beat him a few hours ago.

"We're here," Altair said.

"Good. We've made a reservation for you at a hotel. You'll be staying there the night."

"We're getting this done tonight," Altair said.

"You're to do recon today, the mission will be carried out tomorrow."

"Support-

"This isn't us. The Mentor doesn't want anything to go wrong. He's instructed us to make sure nothing happens," the calm one said.

Altair sighed, "Right, where's the hotel?" there was nothing for it if the Mentor had ordered it.

"Who's driving?"

"I am," Haytham said, a few moments later he said, "Got it," clearly they'd given him the instructions. He turned off the freeway and entered the city streets. It was a lot of stop and go traffic, but at least support was silent.

"This is it?" Altair asked, looking at the hotel.

"Woooah," Diyari breathed, face up to the window.

"This can't be right," Altair frowned. "Support," he said.

"Yes alpha-one?"

"This is where home base is?"

"Yes."

"How the hell did you manage this?"

The calm one chuckled, "If we're sending you into a hostile country, might as well live it up, yeah?"

"I can't park here," Haytham said.

"Huh?" Altair looked at him.

"You kidding? We're in a poj and this is like a four star hotel. We'd be picked out instantly."

"Ah, right," Altair nodded. "Find us a place to park, we're going to ditch the car anyway. From now on we're on foot or mass transport."

"Uhg," Diyari groaned. "Really?"

"I hate cars, grow up," Altair said curtly.

"Can't we just steal mopeds or something?"

"We're not stealing anything," Altair said, looking at them both sternly, especially Diyari. He knew his medic could hot-wire anything in less than a minute. For some reason during his pilgrimage it had been a useful skill. He didn't know the circumstances behind that though, you didn't talk about your pilgrimage unless you wanted to and people didn't ask. It was for you, and no one else. It tended to give field agents strange skills though, like hot-wiring.

"But one-

"No stealing anything," he told Diyari pointedly.

"I don't wanna take the fucking bus," Diyari grumbled and sat back into his seat, arms folded across his chest. "I'm a fucking Assassin not a commuter."

"Save it eleven," Haytham rolled his eyes in his general direction.

"I wouldn't get us in trouble I promise," Diyari whined.

"Eleven, you bring it up one more time and I will honestly kick your ass, and then when we get home I'll write you up," Altair threatened.

"Yes, dad," Diyari sighed a long sigh.

"Don't make me turn this car around," Altair said blandly. It made his men laugh.

"Okay, here we go," Haytham said, parking out of the way a few blocks from the hotel.

"Good. Grab your gear and lets book it, figure out what we need to do to prepare." They got out and took their gear out of the back of the car. Altair slammed the trunk lid down with a tone of finality before they started walking back towards the hotel.

—

Desmond blinked and stared. Munahid stared back. After a moment Desmond smiled. Not for the first time Munahid wished Altair hadn't left him in charge of this kid. He would have rather gone to Utah than stay here with the kid. Munahid had no children, he didn't want children either. He wasn't good with children. Utah would have been easier actually.

"What're you staring at kid?" Munahid growled.

"You," Desmond said with a wicked grin even though he was like ten fucking years old. Munahid frowned at him. "Your face is funny."

"Shut up," Munahid growled.

"Where'd you get all those scars?" the boy asked.

"Anyone ever tell you not to ask questions you don't wanna hear the answers to kid?" Munahid asked the kid.

"I do want the answer though," Desmond smiled slightly. Munahid sighed. "Tell me," he said again.

Munahid eyed the boy. Fine, if he wanted to know, he'd know. He and Ehan didn't tell people how they got the scars all over their faces. They'd done their pilgrimage together, they'd been thick as thieves in their levels, they'd stayed close even when they'd left the fortress. And of course now they were both on Alpha together, sure under One, but Munahid had never been the leader type.

"There's a thing we do, where kids get to leave the fortress for a few years, enter the real world. Anything they want, they can do, on the Order's dime with their allowance. It's called a pilgrimage," Desmond nodded. "Me and a friend had ours in Utah, way before all this… stuff," don't swear in front of the kid, "went down. You know anything about Utah?" he asked Desmond.

"Highly religious, extremist and conservative. Practice a branch of Christianity called Mormonism and was the second state to succeeded from the old United States of America during the Drought," Desmond rattled off. "They're against non Mormons and have been trying to take part of Colorado for the past decade with little success thanks to FRN and Texas involvement. They-

"Okay, that's enough," Munahid rose his hand. By the god, what was this kid? A fucking encyclopedia? "You know about the witch hunts?"

"There were fifty reported deaths, according to Utah officials. Real casualties are thought to number in the hundreds, including pregnant women," Desmond frowned.

"Well this story, is before all that shit happened during the witch hunts," Munahid said.

"Okay. You gonna tell me?"

—

Altair fingered his tags. Oblong, flat as paper and non reflective metal tags. He had three. One he kept in his boot, one around his neck, and the third was with Rauf, clinging to his own around his neck. Unlike pre Collapse tags they weren't stamped, but instead QR codes that were actually a part of the metal themselves, not printed, but metal itself. So it couldn't get flattened or erased, the code would always show up. Altair's numeral code was printed on the top: A-01. It was his only actual designation and even when scanned the QR code gave you an encrypted file that only gave you a phone number for a phone in St. Adams for someone to call in the event of a death and hijacked whatever system you were using and relayed the fact that it had been scanned back to the fortress. Only the Assassins could break the encryption. It kept them safe, and anonymous.

He tucked his tag back under his shirt without comment. Every time he went on a mission he traded out the tag he gave Rauf. It was superstitious thing, no one questioned it because it was practically normal. Rauf always kept the tag he left behind on him even though normally he didn't wear his tags anymore, since he was confined to the fortress. But when Altair was gone Rauf always wore them, Altair's, plus his own, for luck.

"How are we?" Altair asked. Haytham was laying on one of the beds, Diyari was reorganizing his pack. They were all dressed in casual clothes, though Altair felt the familiar, comforting, press of his knife inside his sleeve and another on his calf under his pants.

"Fine," Haytham said, Diyari just nodded.

"Support," Altair said.

"We're here," the nice support said.

"We're in and secured. What's our next objective?"

"The signal's moved again. We're currently tracking it down. Hold tight," support with an attitude said.

"We can't do recon like this support," Altair sighed. He got no answer. Altair muted his comm. "Fucking support," he bitched and shoved his tags back under his shirt.

"Hey eleven," Haytham said from the bed, staring up at the pale ceiling.

"Wha'?" Diyari asked, zipping up his bag

"What you want out of the season?"

"Huh?" Diyari gave their number nine a look.

"Boy, or a girl?"

Diyari looked at Haytham, gave Altair the most bewildered look, then back at Haytham. "What?" he asked.

Haytham propped himself up on his elbows. "You and seven were joined in the season right? Well, what do you want? Girl, or a boy?"

Diyari looked at a loss for a moment. "I don't know," Diyari admitted. "I don't think we want to know."

"Huh," and Haytham lay back down. "What about you one? You got a baby too. What you want?"

"I have two boys," Altair said, "It'd be nice to have a daughter. What's with the questions nine? Thinking about wanting to join the season?"

Haytham rolled over and looked at Altair, "I saw what the real world is like," he said, of course, they all had. "You think I want a kid where they could get lost in that shit? One with fucking witch hunts on pregnant women and you can't walk down the street in St. Adams without getting looks if your skin is too dark?" Altair had to admit Haytham had a point on that last one.

"There's a reason most of us come back," Altair reminded him.

"Society is scary," Haytham rolled back onto his back. "Not like the fortress where everyone has their place and knows their place. You don't knowshit when you get out into society and the Order leads you to fend for yourself. Figure it out they told me when I was first allowed off the property. Figure it out, here's your credit card and your allowance. There's a reason my pilgrimage lasted seventeen months. Society is fuckingterrifying. Like I want any kid of mine to deal with what I had to deal with when I had to jump right in," Haytham was frowning at the ceiling.

"It isn't that bad," Altair said.

Haytham craned his head back and around, "You lasted twenty-two months," Haytham said.

"It was a different situation."

"Pfft, right."

"I was going to stay," and Diyari went still, Haytham stared at Altair with big eyes. "I was going to stay in society," Altair said again.

—

"Utah used to not be so scary," Munahid said. "It used to be a rather peaceful and didn't get into trouble with Colorado. You probably wouldn't even know that, you weren't even a thought back then. They became more militant ten years ago. Before that there was pretty free rein in and out of Utah by non Mormons. They were rather liberal then, and looked like they might allow same sexes to join, but that didn't happen."

"Okay, but how did you get those scars?" Desmond asked, giving him an impatient look.

"Be quiet and I'll tell you," Munahid growled. Desmond pursed his lips at Munahid but said nothing. "Eighteen is when we're sent out on our pilgrimage and live in society for a few years, to learn about it, to integrate and decide if we want that life. You can stay out until you're about twenty-three or twenty-five. You can return whenever you want and if you do that's it, you're there, no take backs."

"What if you want to stay out?" Desmond asked.

"You can stay out, but you cut all ties with the Order. Your allowance is retracted, your access to the tower is taken away, no communication is allowed between you and the Order."

Desmond frowned, "That seems really harsh."

"We don't allow outsiders. We're rather isolationist, but it keeps us alive and successful. You are either committed to the Order, life, body and soul, or you are not a part of it. There is no between. Everyone gets to make their own choice," he added, "and everyone knows what it means to stay and what it means to go, there is no pressure one way or the other."

"Well that's nice I guess," Desmond said and swung his legs back and forth. "You said you were-

"I know," Munahid just cut him off. Fucking kid. "Me and my friend, Ehan, had our pilgrimage together. Same class, same age. It's common. We were going to go to California. Ended up in Utah," he frowned slightly. "There isn't much in Utah, just Salt Lake City and a few smaller cities."

"How did you end up in Utah?"

"We drove through it. It was open at that time, by the time we got there though..." he paused, "they were going through a change in their church's politics. The old head of church and state had just died, they were in the middle of putting a new one in it's place. Borders shut down, the entire city stopped. This was like, twelve years ago," and what a terrible time it had been since the new President had been put into power back then. "Ehan and I were stuck inside Utah when Joseph, the current President, came into power. It started to go down hill from there. After he gained power it became a conservative state again, non Mormons were persecuted, it was a bad time. I know some Utarian, not like Haytham does, but I know some. I helped get us out of most scrapes."

"Why didn't you just call the Order?" Desmond asked, leaning forward, listening intently.

"We had no way to do so. Contact is cut off when we enter society and until we come back the only way they even know we're still alive is by spending our allowance."

"So you did, I assume?" Desmond asked.

Munahid nodded, "We couldn't even get jobs in Utah. Ehan is a semi practicing Muslim, I don't really at all. All we had was our allowance. If something happened and we stopped using it they'd come looking for us, to make sure we weren't dead, or to collect our bodies," Desmond didn't even look remotely turned off. "We had to use them though. So we were stuck in Utah for," he thought a moment, "eight months. We finally got picked up when we ended up in the hospital after getting jumped by a gang of overly eager Mormon guys."

"But you're Assassins. You didn't kick their asses?"

"Can't do much when you're surprised and stunned. They held us down, some of them spoke English, though not very well. They said our kind weren't welcome here and had no right to be in their country. Needed to teach us a lesson they said," Munahid's mouth became another knife scar on his face as he paused. He didn't like reliving the events of his pilgrimage. It was still relatively recent. "So they held us down and cut us up, starting with the face. I have some verses from the Book of Mormon on my torso, I know Ehan has some too," and now Desmond looked uncomfortable. "They only stopped when the police came and scared them off."

"They took you to the hospital?"

Munahid had to collect himself before continuing. He'd told a few people this story. He and Ehan didn't like talking about it though. They'd barely been nineteen when it had happened for fucks sake. "No," he said. "They were going to let us bleed out because we weren't Mormons. A passerby called an ambulance. Our were run, the Order was alerted to our condition."

"And then?" Desmond asked.

"They had us airlifted to a hospital in California. Once they released us we continued our pilgrimage."

"You didn't go back to St. Adams?" Desmond asked, curious.

"No."

"Why not? You and Ehan were all hurt."

"Because if we went back that would be the end of it. Our pilgrimage would be over. We were willing to suffer the scars to have freedom."

Desmond looked at him intently, serious. "I understand that," he sad after a few moments. "I wanted freedom too." Munahid didn't know quite what to think of that. He didn't comment, and was saved from even having to do so when someone walked into the room.

"Sir," it was Sarah, or Sally, he couldn't fucking tell them apart sometimes. Trouble with when there were twins in the Order, they were always identical. Sarah and Sally were painfully similar. Ash brown hair, seven EVs unlocked, both members of Alpha. Altair always kept them straight. Munahid wasn't so good at that.

"Yeah?" Munahid asked.

"Support's on the horn," she licked her lips.

"What's wrong eight?"

"They need you to talk to some Mormons sir. Or at least try to reach One."

"... Why? What happened?" he was already half out of his chair.

Sarah swallowed uncomfortably, "Support thinks something went sideways-

"Shit," Munahid swore and was the rest of the way out of his seat. "Watch the kid," he called over his shoulder as he headed for the support area in the bureau. This was so the opposite of good.

—

The room was quiet after Altair's confession. Most of Alpha knew the stories of each other's pilgrimages. Except Altair. He didn't talk about it, he didn't even act like he'd been on one. His has been short, even by short standards. Munahid and Ehan had lasted longer than him and they'd been sliced up by crazy, Mormon, extremists. What had happened on Altair's pilgrimage was much speculated by the rest of Alpha. He'd arrived back at St. Adams without warning, been debriefed and given down time, which was unusual. The next year he'd been shoved through a season. Altair knew the Order's reasoning on it, most people didn't. Twenty year olds didn't get kids unless they petitioned hard and long. He knew they hadn't wanted to lose whatever it was that made Altair so good at what they didn't. He didn't hold it against the Order, they were looking it out for themselves, and he got Darim out of it, he couldn't be mad.

"Really?" Diyari asked him. "You wanted to stay out?"

While not a sin, most who left the Order were looked down on by those who stayed. It was seen as abandonment. You left your friends, your family, the only home you'd ever known and had to start your life over from scratch. It was hard. Staying in society was considered beneath most Assassins. "Yeah," Altair said without apology and pushed himself to his feet, turning support back on. "Give me good news support," and with that he ended the conversation. He saw curiosity /burning/ in Haytham and Diyari's eyes, but they asked nothing, said nothing.

"We got a trace on the beacon," they said.

"Great," Altair nodded.

"We're sending coordinates to your tablet, it's outside the city, near the mountains."

"Got it," he tossed the tablet at Haytham, who'd also been listening in on the conversation.

"This is recon only Alpha," the nice support said.

"Yes dad," Diyari was leaning over Haytham's shoulder.

"Don't get smart with me!"

"Okay, lover," Diyari smirked and he and Haytham fist bumped for that one as support sputtered over the line.

"Found us a way. It's a hike if we don't take the car," Haytham said to Altair.

"We'll take it then."

"Okay," Haytham reached over and grabbed the keys from the bedside table.

"Gear up, we leave in five," Altair ordered, Haytham and Diyari nodded. He wanted this to be over with sooner rather than later and they weren't going to get this shit done sitting here playing tourist with their thumbs up their asses. Time to move and make a play. Altair's tags felt heavy around his neck for some reason. They only did that when something bad was going to happen.


End file.
